Hamilton, at 38, is the second-oldest driver on the current🥃 F1 grid but his legendary career is🅺 set to be extended by a new Mercedes contract, which will likely take him into his 40s.

But the seven-time world champi🌠on belongs to a generation older than most of the grid, incl🌺uding his teammate of two seasons, Russell.

Russell was asked in an interview with C🅷anal+ by Naomi Schiff: “Lewis is not going to race for♐ever. 

“If you c♎ould pick your next teammate, w🍸ho would you pick? And why?”

Russell offered a glimpse into his mind-set by answering: “I’d ಌpick Max. Because when I joined Mercedes to be teammates with Lewis, Lewis was and is regarded as the best driver of all time.

“You want t𒈔o go against the 🌊best, test yourself against the best, learn from the best.

“For me, having these 18 months alongside Lewis has been really, really great to push my boundari𒅌es, to learn more about myself as a driver and as an individual.

“And obviously Max is at the top of his game, right now. Des𝐆troying Formula 1. So we’d all want to go against Max, 𝓰and see how we get on.”

Russell notably became just the third teammate to outperform Hamilton over an entire seaso꧋n last year, the first of Mercedes’ troubles.

Red Bull have taken over during that time and Verstappen is on course for a third championship in🧸 a ro꧃w.

This weeke✃nd at the F1 Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes are among the chasing pack who hope to end Veꦏrstappen and Red Bull’s winning streak.