Mercedes junior and GP3 driver Russell to drive team's 2017 car on both days of in-season test in Budapest
Saturday 24 June 2017 13:40, UK
Mercedes will hand their British teenager George Russell his full F1 test debut in Hungary at the start of August.
The 19-year-old GP3 driver will drive the W08 on both days at the Hungaroring on August 1-2 as F1 teams get their final chance during the season to test outside of a race weekend.
After Mercedes ran their two race drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, at 2017's first in-season test at Barcelona after May's Spanish GP, F1's regulations dictated that they run a rookie driver in Budapest.
Russell has not driven the W08 on a track but got used to Mercedes' ways of working when he ran their 2015 car, the W06, in a private test at Portimao, Portugal in early April.
"I'm just so excited to be testing the W08," said the Briton, who is at the Azerbaijan GP this weekend with Mercedes.
"I've probably driven more virtual laps than anyone else with this car so it's going to be incredible to drive it in reality!"
Russell joined F1 race drivers Esteban Ocon and Pascal Wehrlein on Mercedes' junior programme at the start of the year after catching the eye of Toto Wolff in last year's European F3 championship, where he finished third.
Stepping up to GP3 with the well-established ART team for 2017, Russell made an impressive start to the series with fourth and fifth places on the opening weekend at Barcelona. He returns to race action in Austria and Britain in July, before also competing at the Hungaroring in the days before his F1 test with Mercedes.
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