Mercedes principal Toto Wolff says that George Russell remains a very important part of the team's plans for the future.
Currently in his second season with Williams, Russell is keen to get the call to step up to title-winning team as soon as possible. However he has found his way forward blocked by the incumbency of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Any hopes that he might have had of replacing the Finn at Brackley in 2021 have been dashed by confirmation that Williams is exercising its option to retain the 22-year-old from Kings Lynn for a third campaign.
Wolff said that he understood and respected Claire Williams' decision to hold on to Russell, and that it didn't mean that the driver was at risk of losing out on a future race seat at Mercedes.
"George had a three-year contract with Williams that runs one more year, and Claire made very clear that she sees George as an important asset to the team," Wolff told Crash.net in an exclusive interview held prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
"From that side one must respect the contractual situation," he acknowledged. “George and us knew what we were getting ourselves into two years ago.
"Williams gave George the opportunity to come into Formula 1, and this is why the decision that Williams takes, we respect very much.
“We are always looking at the long-term picture, and George is someone who is very important for the long-term - but not for 2021.
“On the other side, it doesn’t mean that if George was free he would find a guaranteed slot at Mercedes," Wolff cautioned. "Valtteri and Lewis are our drivers today and loyalty is something that is very important to us.
"We are very happy with the line-up that we have," he continued. “Valtteri and Lewis perform well. They get on really well with each other, which is important for the dynamic within the team, and the engineers really appreciate their feedback."
Neither driver has been officially signed up for next season, although rumours last week strongly suggested that Bottas' latest contract extension had already been agreed and that Hamilton's was not far behind.
Meanwhile Wolff praised the efforts of Williams to recover from a dismal 2019 season, which have resulted in Russell making it into the second round of qualifying for the most recent two races.
“I’m very pleased for the team, because Williams has always been close to my heart," he said, having originally been a shareholder in the team before taking over at Mercedes.
"They made the jump from cruising at the back of the grid last year to actually into the midfield," he added. "It seems like the car is a great qualifying car. It has made a big step."
Wolff said that the experience would be formative for Russell for when he did finally get his big break at a top team: "The learning curve is going to continue, and that is important for both of us going forward.”
Unfortunately the FW43 has proved less effective in race trim than in qualifying, leaving Russell still short of earning that all-important first F1 championship point.
"We are pretty fast on the Saturday and struggle a lot on the Sunday," Russell acknowledged. "However if we look at everything and see the steps we have made, especially on the Saturdays, we have got to be relatively pleased.
"There are plenty of positives, we just need to rectify the negatives and make our pace of the car a bit better across the ball."
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