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George Russell and Daniel Ricciardo, the two personalities could not be further apart. But what if there is a possibility that the current Mercedes driver could have a career eerily similar to that of the Australian's?
Daniel Ricciardo made his debut in Formula 1 in 2011 and, since then, has been one of the more prominent figures in the sport. Except for 2023, which he sat out for the most part, the Australian is someone who has almost always been in the limelight and competed on the grid.
George Russell made his debut in 2019, and after a multi-year stint at Williams, he's now teamed up with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. With Hamilton leaving at the end of the season, George Russell will take over as the lead driver at Mercedes, a team that has dominated the sport from 201421.
While it does appear that the future is bright for George Russell, is he destined to have the same career trajectory that Daniel Ricciardo had? Let's take a look.
What happened to Daniel Ricciardo?
Impressive run in a backmarker
Daniel Ricciardo started his career with a handful of races first for HRT before moving to Torro Rosso, where he was teamed up with Jean-Eric Vergne. After being the more impressive driver within the team, Ricciardo got a promotion to Red Bull in 2014.
Instant impression on the senior team
The 2014 F1 season was the breakout year for Ricciardo. The Australian got the promotion as Mark Webber retired from the sport, and in a year where Red Bull's competitiveness took a step back, Ricciardo won three races and outperformed reigning champion Sebastian Vettel.
By the end of the 2014 F1 season, Ricciardo was a legitimate top-tier driver on the grid.
Taking over as the lead when the star driver leaves
By the end of 2014, Sebastian Vettel had announced that he would be leaving Red Bull and moving to Ferrari. This development meant that Daniel Ricciardo was now the lead driver within the team. He was teamed up with Daniil Kvyat in 2015 as Red Bull began its journey to return to title contention.
A young prodigious talent is teamed up
In 2016, Daniel Ricciardo will be teamed up with a young prodigy named Max Verstappen. The Dutchman went on to win his very first race for Red Bull, and the partnership began on a positive note. Daniel Ricciardo outscored Max Verstappen in 2016 and 2017 as the young driver takes his time getting used to the sport.
The young talent takes over
In 2018, however, Max Verstappen started taking over within Red Bull. The crash between the two drivers in Baku left Daniel Ricciardo unimpressed and with Verstappen starting to take over in terms of performance and results, the Australian had a choice to make as his contract comes to an end.
Ricciardo departs and his career starts declining
In the end of the 2018 F1 season, Daniel Ricciardo took a giant leap of faith and left Red Bull for Renault. The driver moved to the works team with the objective of replicating what Lewis Hamilton had done at Mercedes.
From that point onwards, however, Daniel Ricciardo's career took the wrong turn. He had a decent run at Renault and even got a few podiums, but once he went to McLaren, everything nose-dived.
He could not adapt to the car and was dropped by McLaren within two years and currently, he finds himself at Red Bull's junior team with his stock at an all-time low.
Daniel Ricciardo, who was considered one of the best drivers in F1 in 2018, saw his stock fall, and while he was looked at as a driver who could be a possible title contender, it never materialized.
The worrying trajectory for George Russell
Now that we've looked at Daniel Ricciardo's career, let's see how many parallels we can draw between his career and George Russell's.
Impressive run in a backmarker
Just like Daniel Ricciardo, the first phase of George Russell's career was driving for a backmarker. At Williams, George Russell impressed everyone with his form and drove brilliantly. One of the standout results was the podium for the team in the 2021 F1 Belgian GP.
At the end of the 2021 F1 season, Russell was destined to move to Mercedes and team up with Lewis Hamilton in 2022.
Instant impression on the senior team
George Russell made an immediate impression at Mercedes in his very first year with the team. He outscored Lewis Hamilton, the star lead driver for the team, got his first win and even secured his first pole position.
Since then, Russell has had a somewhat average second season with the team but found his way back in the third and continues to be the better driver at Mercedes compared to his teammate.
Taking over as the lead when the star driver leaves
Just like Ricciardo, George Russell will take over from Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes's lead driver in 2024. It's still yet to be confirmed who will be his teammate, but in all likelihood, Russell will be the lead driver at Mercedes.
The uncanny similarity between the two
Until this point, both George Russell and Daniel Ricciardo have had a similar career trajectory. At this juncture of George Russell's career, the Mercedes driver is considered a future world champion if he gets the right car, just like Ricciardo was.
However, it does appear that there is a possibility that the next phase could be eerily similar. Just like Daniel Ricciardo had Max Verstappen join him at Red Bull, in all likelihood, at some point in his career, George Russell will have Kimi Antonelli join him at Mercedes.
Could Kimi Antonelli do to George Russell what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo? Could that force Russell to ultimately leave Mercedes and change his career trajectory? Could we see something similar happen to Russell's career as it did to Ricciardo's? We don't know yet but the resemblance is uncanny.
