George Russell joined the Mercedes F1 team taking a seat next to Lewis Hamilton in a bid to become a world champion. But history is a testament that being a 7-time world champion’s teammate is not a walk on the beach.
Hamilton has had many rivals in his 16-year-long illustrious career, though, his rivalry with Nico Rosberg[which was prevalent between 2013-2016] is considered the fiercest battle of his career. It has often been compared with the Alain Prost-Ayrton Senna rivalry.
Peter Windsor, F1 journalist and former Williams and Ferrari team manager, believes that Russell’s rivalry with Hamilton will be 10 times worse than the latter had with Rosberg.
Ever since the young Briton’s move to Mercedes was announced, multiple speculations had been made about Russell giving a hard time to Hamilton.
Mercedes teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton retired after a collision on the 1st lap. #F1 #OTD 2016 #SpanishGP (Video via @F1) pic.twitter.com/9EXChyPrPI
— Zdravko (@zdravkost) May 15, 2019
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George Russell is going to drive into Lewis Hamilton
The 24-year-old had a pretty smooth first season with the Mercedes team as the team did not have a car that could fight for the championship.
Russell even outperformed his 37-year-old teammate in the championship standings by 35 points.
But Windsor believes that once the Silver Arrows build a car worth fighting for the championships, it will not be as easy.
Speaking on his Twitch channel, the Australian said, what happened between Rosberg and Hamilton at the opening lap in Barcelona in 2016 is just the start of the rivalry between the Mercedes superstar and his new teammate.
Windsor explained that Russell is a tough and hard racer and he is going to drive into Hamilton quite a lot when they have championship-winning machinery.
Hamilton is the best driver since Niki Lauda – Windsor
Furthermore, the 70-year-old journalist thinks that Hamilton is the best driver he has seen since 3-time world champion Niki Lauda.
Hamilton has broken many records in his journey to the top one of the most major one being his 7-championship titles only next to F1 legend Michael Schumacher.
But Windsor draws parallels between the Briton and Lauda saying that the 37-year-old is the best at not being involved in somebody else’s accident.
And in the case of Russell and Hamilton rivalry, the 103 GP winner will be the same[staying away from collisions] but Russell won’t be like that.
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