George Russell, who had an exceptional debut season with Mercedes is going through a rough patch in 2023. The young Brit is in P8, compared to his teammate Lewis Hamilton’s P3, which has led to a lot of criticism directed towards him. According to GP Today, ex F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone too, joined in, as he slammed Russell for not thinking clearly while racing. Meanwhile, Ecclestone, who hasn’t seen eye to eye with Hamilton in plenty of subjects, praised the seven-time world champion.
Hamilton had a shaky 2022, in addition to the W13 underperforming. Compared to that, 2023 has seen the Brit become a lot more consistent, which has put him third in the standings with just six races to go. Russell, meanwhile, has been thoroughly underwhelming and is five places behind Hamilton.
There is a lot of pressure on Russell to deliver, especially after the high standards he set in 2022. His place at Mercedes is secure until 2025 after he signed a deal last month. Still, he would like to challenge his teammate Hamilton a lot more. However, his racecraft has been brought into question by none other than Bernie Ecclestone.
Ecclestone slams George Russell; explains why Lewis Hamilton is dominating him
Ecclestone and Hamilton have had several disagreements over the years. However, in an interview with the Daily Mail, as quoted by GP Today, Ecclestone clearly points Hamilton out as the better Mercedes driver. While doing so, he explained why Russell was struggling, and the main reason he could come up with was, Russell was “not clearly thinking”.
“I’m not sure what to think of him. I like him and he is also very talented. However, it is about how far he wants to go to win. He hoped that Carlos Sainz would make his tires in Singapore because he pushed very hard. I don’t think he thinks carefully about how he’s going to race, Lewis does.”
“They raced in each hard”
Bradley Lord says it’s easy to read “too much” into radio messages as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton battled away in Suzuka 👇 pic.twitter.com/5rCd1SqHEJ
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) September 24, 2023
Of course, the stats do show that Russell is lacking a lot in terms of performance compared to Hamilton. However, the 25-year-old is immensely talented, and is Mercedes’ only race winner in the last year and a half. That is something both Russell and Hamilton want to replicate in the coming races, despite some internal troubles as of late.
Rift between Hamilton and Russell?
Many people consider the driver pairing of Hamilton and Russell to be the best in F1 at the moment. However, this also means that Mercedes has two ambitious drivers, who don’t want to leave an inch, in their quest of achieving success.
This was visible at the Japanese GP two weeks ago, where both drivers were fighting among each other, despite being miles away from the top three. If Mercedes do get into the championship picture in 2024, rifts between Hamilton and Russell is something they will be desperate to avoid.
