Russell: No doubt Antonelli is going to be keeping me on my toes

Such was Mercedes' confidence in Antonelli's talent that they accelerated his ascension to the top flight by placing him in Formula 2 without going to Formula 3, while they gave him the seat Hamilton is vacating in 2025 by going to Ferrari, and that was even before the Italian youngster finished his current season in the sport's feeder series.

Antonelli made his F1 debut in FP1 at Monza but crashed after ten minutes into the session, showing that he still lacks a lot in terms of experience, a point Russell stressed when asked to comment about his new teammate.

The Briton said: "I think I’ve always believed that you gain a lot over time with experience, in terms of how to deal with the race weekend, the tyres, the team, but I don’t believe I’m any faster today on raw pace than I was when I was 17 years old.

"And I think you’ve either got the speed or you don’t have the speed, and Kimi absolutely has the speed. He’s proven that in all of his categories.

“There will be mistakes on the way as there were for all of us," Russell went on. "I think every single driver on the grid in Formula 1 in their first couple of seasons made very visual mistakes, and that’s going to be obviously highlighted more for any driver who’s at the front of the field.

"But Kimi’s exceptionally fast and I’ve got no doubt he’s going to be really keeping me on my toes next year, and I’m really looking forward to a new challenge.

"Three years working with Lewis has been exceptional, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do together from next year onwards," the 26-year-old Mercedes driver concluded.

Russell has shown alongside Hamilton that he has got the speed and has outqualified his decorated teammate quite a few times but has shown some vulnerability in race conditions, his crash at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix springing into mind.