George Russell’s Close Friend Jamie Chadwick Wrongly Accuses Lewis Hamilton of Lying About Mercedes Affairs

Jamie Chadwick, a development driver for Williams and a W-Series champion has some close ties in the F1 paddock. She is also a close friend of George Russell and his girlfriend Carmen Mundt, something that has been brought up after she made a bold claim about Lewis Hamilton. However, it seems the 26-year-old was misinformed, as she has been proven wrong.

As quoted by Planet F1, she said, “I think he knows what he’s doing. He’s spinning it to make it sound like he’s maybe not got the upgrades this weekend, which I’m not sure about because a team like Mercedes generally always brings upgrades to both cars. It’s not like they need to split it between the two cars. He’s 7-1 on someone like Lewis Hamilton, which is incredible. And I think Lewis is probably not happy about that, to be honest. And that’s where that comment has come from.”

Stoking the flames of a high-tension environment, one could question if bias was to play a role in her statement. Chadwick made these comments after Hamilton admitted he expected to lose two-tenths in qualifying because Russell had the upgrades package. The team only had one upgraded front wing for Monaco, which was fitted on Russell’s W15.

George Russell himself revealed that the decision on who gets the upgrade was a coin toss. Hamilton refused to leave it to chance and offered the upgrade to his young compatriot. However, Chadwick’s comments insinuating that Hamilton has some sort of insecurity because of Russell didn’t sit right with many as fans on X were quick to point out where her loyalties lie.

How the upgrades were distributed between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell

Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, sat down for the routine post-race debrief. One of the first questions he answered was why the front wing was available for one car only. He discussed the single availability and future decisions regarding similar situations. He also revealed how Hamilton made the awkward situation easy for the team.

After confessing, the team back in Brackley will be ready with three front wings for Canada. However, a front wing is made one after the other, which is why the team had one in Monaco. He revealed that the drivers had questioned this process.

“Why not just let one of us run it? So, we did agree with the drivers. Now, the difficult question was, how do we decide who will run it? But there, actually, Lewis said, well, if we’re going to start doing this, where we haven’t got enough parts, let George run it in Monaco.”

Shovlin added that similar situations will occur in the future, and the team will then alternate the preference. So, with Russell getting the preference in Monaco, the next limited availability upgrade package will automatically go to Hamilton.