“He deserves to race at Mercedes.
“On the other side, George has done his three years at Williams and shown great, great promise for the future and he deserves to have the chance to actually be in a competitive car at the very front of the grid.
“There are pros and cons with each of them but I guess it’s now decision time. I said to them I don’t want to drag it out much longer. I just want to finish the holidays, go to Spa and have the conversations face-to-face.”
First practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps gets underway on Friday morning.
Lewis Hamilton currently has a slender eight-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with Max Verstappen hot on his heels.