Matching and outperforming Lewis Hamilton isn’t something many in F1 can boast about. But George Russell, who joined Mercedes in 2022, can proudly say he did just that in his first year at the Silver Arrows. He immediately established himself as one of the sport’s top stars, and perhaps that’s what instilled a huge level of trust in him from the team’s end.
Russell finished ahead of Hamilton in the standings in both 2022 and 2024. He even outqualified Hamilton in 2024, with a dominant 19-5 head-to-head record. So when the #44 driver left the Silver Arrows for Ferrari this season, there wasn’t an ounce of doubt that Russell had what it took to be the team leader Hamilton had previously been for over a decade.
Russell knows what a fine job he did, and he is proud of it.
While speaking to The Athletic, the former Williams driver revealed how there used to be a time when beating Hamilton meant one had reached the top of F1. “Being teammates with a seven-time world champion for three years is not straightforward,” he stated.
“There was once a time that if you finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a championship or in a race, you’d win the race. Or, if you’d finish ahead of the championship, you’d win the championship,” Russell added.
“If my time was five years prior, you could argue I’d have two championships in my name.”
During Mercedes’ dominant period, Hamilton won the title six times, losing just once to Nico Rosberg — a driver who had given his all and made big sacrifices to get the better of his rival in the final race of the 2016 season. In all the other years (excluding Rosberg’s championship year), Hamilton finished on top. Even Valtteri Bottas, his teammate between 2017-2021, couldn’t get close to him.
LEWIS HAMILTON IS A SEVEN TIME WORLD CHAMPION!#TurkishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/gOGfeEZxp8
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 15, 2020
So, the fact that Russell beat Hamilton twice is a commendable achievement. Just that, he did so at the wrong time. If Mercedes did have a championship-worthy car during the time Russell and Hamilton were teammates (2022-2024), it’s true that the younger Briton could have been a two-time world champion.
Or, as Russell put it, if he beat Hamilton during the team’s golden era, titles would be guaranteed.
Hamilton and Russell get too close for comfort in qualifying #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/iNN0795E9p
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 3, 2023
Unfortunately, the golden era for both Mercedes and Hamilton ended in 2022. The Stevenage-born driver struggled to adapt to the new-generation F1 cars introduced with the regulation changes. He simply couldn’t find comfort in a car that, for the most part, was little more than an occasional podium challenger.
The Hamilton that Russell beat twice was by no means the ‘prime Lewis Hamilton’ that once struck fear into the rest of the grid. How the seven-time world champion would have performed in a post-2022 championship-worthy Mercedes will remain unknown. Regardless, the fact that Russell beat him twice in three years is undeniable.
