Williams rookie George Russell certainly has a good pedigree in the lower categories, having won F3 and F2 in consecutive seasons. Now he must translate that to success in F1, just like Charles Leclerc in 2018.
Leclerc earned himself a promotion to Ferrari after a stunning debut campaign, and Williams’ technical director Paddy Lowe believes that Russell can emulate the Frenchman in 2019.
Lowe said: "We have a different driver combination for next year which is actually incredibly exciting.
"George is one of the best prospective talents I think for Formula 1 that's around at the moment.
"We've seen Charles this year come through from winning Formula 2, and I'm hoping we'll see a similar star class capability coming from George, but we should be patient around that.
"What I have seen over the years is different drivers take a different amount of time to get to grips with Formula 1.
"Some are slower and some are quicker. It doesn't actually indicate where they will arrive once they settle down.
"So we're not going into next season with any particular expectations for George.
"[But] in the long term we think he's going to be one of the leading drivers of the sport."
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