If young George ( Russell ) is to have a future at Mercedes then this car needs to be at least a little better than last year . Ocon's probably already in line to replace Bottas next year ( 2020 ) if the finn doesn't improve ( although his problems are not all down to him given some of the ridiculous team orders he had to take when they weren't even really needed , such as in Sochi ) so realistically George is waiting for either Ocon to be no better than Bottas or for Lewis to retire to get a seat at Mercedes . In the meantime he has to REALLY impress though and it's a tough call that he'll have a good enough car to do that regardless of how talented he is . Also , I think if Lewis retired sooner rather than later Mercedes would probably poach a big name from another team rather than risk it on George especially if they don't learn much more about him because the Williams is so bad . I hope it is good enough for him to shine a bit because I rate him more than Lando to be honest ( who also has his work cut out to impress in the McLaren ) .