“I know how tricky it is to beat Lewis Hamilton”- Valtteri Bottas praises George Russell for taking the fight to former Mercedes teammate

George Russell has had a great start to his career at Mercedes, and has outperformed teammate Lewis Hamilton on several occasions.

Russell has had the spotlight on him since making his F2 debut back in 2019. He spent three seasons at Williams, a team that wasn’t competitive enough to escape from the wrong end of the grid.

Despite that, he attracted a lot of attention owing to his brilliant drives in a sub-par Williams car. In 2022, he finally joined Mercedes after months of rumors and speculation and it was Valtteri Bottas whom he replaced.

Russell has had an impressive start to his stint in Brackley, and has spent a vast part of the campaign outperforming Hamilton. The latter is one of F1’s greatest of all time, and is coming on the back off a dominant era in the sport, where he won six Titles in eight years.

Bottas, who knows how difficult it is to beat Hamilton, lauded Russell for rising up to the challenge.

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George Russell has impressed Valtteri Bottas for outperforming Lewis Hamilton

Russell is currently 19 points ahead of Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings. Up until the British GP he finished P5 or above in every single outing, a streak that ended after he made contact in a first lap crash at Silverstone.

Bottas was Hamilton’s teammate from 2017 to 2021, and has repeatedly insisted on just how difficult he is to beat. The fact that Russell has managed to take the game to the legendary driver shows how good he really is.

“I think George has done great, as expected,” Bottas said as quoted by RN365. “Especially as I know myself how tricky it is to beat Lewis, so yeah, he’s been doing a good job.”

Russell did not get ahead of himself at any stage this year so far. However, he remains adamant that is aim will be to finish ahead of everyone, and that includes Hamilton.

“I think as drivers you want to finish ahead of everybody, of course, and that includes your teammate,” Russell admitted. “I knew the challenge I faced ahead of the season, going up against Lewis, and I’ve seen first-hand just how great he is.”

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