“It’ll be a different story”: Lewis Hamilton vows to fight George Russell if he gets in way of winning eighth World Championship

Lewis Hamilton will be more aggressive with George Russell on track if the Mercedes teammates end up fighting for the Championship.

Russell joined Mercedes at the start of the 2022 season and teamed up alongside an all-time great in Hamilton. The latter had just spent the last five years with Valtteri Bottas as his partner and the Finn was definitely the second driver on the team.

However, when Russell arrived, people were sure that the tides were turning. Hamilton is 37 years old and Russell is an up-and-coming youngster who is regarded as a future World Champion. They were sure that Russell would take over as the number one driver on the team.

So far, the Silver Arrows have not prioritized either driver. Both have been fairly consistent in a car that is struggling behind Ferrari and Red Bull. Even for Hamilton, having Russell ahead at the moment is not an issue. This is because they are fighting for P5 and P6 in the standings. However, if they were to fight for the Championship, the story would be very different.

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Lewis Hamilton won’t let George Russell finish in front of him

Hamilton is fine with his teammate finishing in front of him this year which says a lot about him. The Brit has never been beaten by a teammate in F1 before, but in what has arguably been his most challenging year so far, he is ready to accept defeat.

However, him accepting defeat to Russell is only down to the fact that they are fighting for lower positions. Had they been the frontrunners, Hamilton would not let Russell finish ahead of him.

“If he finishes in front of me in the World Championship this year, I don’t mind,” the seven-time World Champion said to AMuS. “We leave at fifth and sixth place. It would be a different story when it came to first and second place.”

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Hamilton accepts that he’ll not win a race in 2022

Hamilton made his F1 debut in 2007 and since then, he has won a race every single season. This year, however, Mercedes failed to cope up with the regulation changes as well as Ferrari or Red Bull did. Consequently, the 37-year-old has been win less so far.

Unless he fails to win in Mexico, Brazil or Abu Dhabi, we will see an incredible streak come to an end. As far as Hamilton is concerned, however, he will definitely not be winning any of the remaining three outings.