Verstappen: George will make it very difficult for Lewis

It is widely expected that Russell has a contract to race for Mercedes next year, thus ousting Valtteri Bottas as the team appears to be prepping the 23-year-old to succeed Hamilton as team leader, with the Finn the odd man out.

Should Russell's move transpire as expected, Verstappen told reporters at Zandvoort: “If he joins for sure he will make it very difficult for Lewis. He jumped into the car in Bahrain and basically from lap one made it very difficult for Valtteri.

"You can only imagine the more experience you gain in that car and the more you get accustomed within the team naturally you’re going to become faster. When you do your first race you are guided by the team about set-up direction because you just don’t know what to do initially with the car.

“I remember my first race at Red Bull, the thing I said was ‘we’ll just follow a bit what Daniel [Ricciardo] is doing because I have no clue about what this car needs to go quick’ because even though F1 cars look pretty similar, the way of setting them up can be very different.

“So, I’m very confident. You could see the performance [George] did at Spa was really good. Of course, they set up the car a bit more for wet conditions, but nevertheless, to do that in a Williams was very impressive. I do expect him to do very well if he gets that seat," added Verstappen.

Right now on the F1 landscape, several formidable young drivers are establishing themselves for the long-run led by Verstappen at Red Bull; Ferrari have hedged their bets with Charles Leclerc; Lando Norris is the future for McLaren; Esteban Ocon has the hopes of Renault and Russell, in all likelihood, will be the Mercedes man - all of them in their early twenties.

Hence the Young Guard are squeezing out the Old Guard, the oldest of which, Kimi Raikkonen at 41, has decided to call it quits at the end of this year. Leaving Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and, of course, Hamilton as the over-thirties still in the top flight.

Verstappen added: “It’s a natural thing, at one point other drivers get too old so they have to retire, and the new people come in. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any drivers in Formula 1!

“Of course, it’s nice that all of us who were in pretty similar categories all the time, already from go-karting. We’re not many years apart so it’s nice that you can share these kinds of battles from go-karting all the way to F1," said 23-year-old Max of his generation of rivals.

Meanwhile, when Hamilton was questioned about the possibility of Russell being his new teammate, the World Champ replied: “I honestly think it will be good. I think George is an incredibly talented driver, clearly. I would say probably the only highlight from last week [at Spa] was his qualifying lap, it was amazing. I think he's humble.

Now the world waits until Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, the real puppet-master behind this Silly Season show, decides the time is right to confirm either way. The delays are probably down to finalising contracts which have probably kept lawyers on overtime.