George Russell should be Max Verstappen's next team-mate – Formula1News.co.uk

Marc Surer recently featured on the ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast.
With reigning World Champion Max Verstappen looking all but certain to retain his Drivers’ Championship and with George Russell currently ahead of Sir Lewis Hamilton in the standings, ex-F1 driver Marc Surer believes the pair would make the perfect driver line-up.
Surer recently featured on the ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast, where he was asked who he would sign if he were to have his own team.
The former Arrows driver completed 82 races in F1, during an eight-year spell at the pinnacle of motorsport from 1979-1986.
Verstappen, in Surer’s opinion, is “nearly perfect”, with the 70-year-old being certain that the incredible Dutchman would be his number one driver.
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“You have to say Max Verstappen,” he said.
“I think at the moment he is the fastest driver in the field. In the past he made sometimes mistakes, now he’s nearly perfect.”
Surer was asked if Verstappen has become a better driver since winning the title last season, where things became borderline dirty in his season-long battle with Hamilton.
The former Swiss driver thinks Verstappen has excelled this season, mainly due to the pressure now being “gone”.
“Yes, yes, definitely. Because I think the pressure is gone. He just knows how to do it,” he said.
Incredibly, Surer would choose Russell as the number two driver, instead of the likes of Charles Leclerc or Hamilton.
Surer revealed that it’d be a difficult decision between Russell and Lando Norris, but that the Mercedes F1 Team driver just gets the edge due to impressing whilst driving for Williams Racing.
“I think George Russell is the second driver I will choose,” he said.
“I’m between Norris and Russell, but I think Norris improved every year [while] Russell impressed already in his first year when he was driving the Williams.
“He had this extra, now he can prove it. [He is] unlucky the Mercedes is not winning. Don’t forget he is tall and more heavy than other drivers. I think he drives with a little disadvantage and still, he is fantastic.”
Both Russell and Verstappen are in their mid twenties, meaning that the duo would have plenty of years alongside each other to win a plethora of titles.
So just why would Surer choose Russell over Hamilton or Leclerc?
He explained that an established driver wouldn’t work alongside Verstappen, with the combination being “quite boring”.
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Surer believes that only a young driver yet to win would work alongside the Dutchman, in order to put him under pressure.
“When you employ a Max Verstappen you want a young driver next to him and not an old driver,” he explained.
“I always find this combination quite boring if you have two established drivers and for me, Leclerc is already an established driver. He has won races before and so I will take a young one to give pressure to Max.”
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