Martin Brundle has refused to rule out the possibility that George Russell could beat Lewis Hamilton to a World Championship should Mercedes follow in the footsteps of Red Bull and produce a dominant, title-worthy car for the 2024 or 2025 seasons.

The legendary co-commentator was answering fan questions for a Sky Sports F1 Q&A session when he was asked which of the Mercedes drivers would come out on top in a title fight should the Silver Arrows produce a car worthy of claiming World Championships before the 2026 regulation changes.

“I think they’re so close, those two if you look at the stats,” Brundle explained. “But George had a couple of nightmare races this year. That’s a very good question. It depends [on] if Lewis maintains his current motivation, but it’s so close to call.

“Lewis knows how to do that but George has got youth on his side. I don’t know the answer to that, but I definitely wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, Lewis without a doubt, because he’s already a seven-time champion.’ That I would absolutely not say. Until George is in a championship-winning position, we don’t know if he’s got the head to cope with it.”

The team-mate battle at Mercedes has been extremely close since Russell made the step up from Williams to replace Valtteri Bottas at the start of the 2022 season. In his maiden season with the Silver Arrows, it was the new recruit who came out on top, capitalising on Hamilton’s experimental set-up work to finish 35 points clear of the seven-time champion.

However, in 2023 Hamilton made it clear that he still sees himself as Mercedes’ primary driver, wrapping up third place in the Drivers’ Championship with a round to spare, finishing best of the rest behind the two Red Bull drivers and 59 points clear of team-mate Russell, who struggled down in eighth.