George Russell and Lewis Hamilton have not been teammates for very long, but they have a huge amount of respect for one another.
Mercedes haven’t had the best of starts to the 2022 season, but their driving pairing remains one of the strongest. Russell is one of the most exciting prospects in the sport, having impressed at Williams for the first three years of his career.
Hamilton on the other hand, has established himself as an all-time great. He has won seven World Championships, and has the most number of pole positions and race wins of all time. The two Briton’s have developed a good relationship off track, which often shows during races.
In the latest episode of the Beyond The Grid podcast, the 24-year old talked about his teammate, and what makes him stand out. He admitted that there are things the legendary driver does, which others don’t know about.
“There are some traits that he definitely carries that are really intriguing to me,” he said. “I’m not gonna share those now. Because I’m the only driver on the grid that has the luxury of being teammates with the greatest driver of all time”
Mercedes is a well-oiled winning machine, says George Russell
Russell impressed everyone during the first three years of his young F1 career with Williams. However, it took him more than two years to earn his first ever points. This was mainly due to the fact that the team fielded a very uncompetitive car.
In spite of that, they bounced back in the 2021 season, to earn a podium finish, which was Russell’s first in F1. Towards the end of the campaign, his move to Mercedes became official and more expectations were put on his shoulder. In the podcast, he also highlighted the major difference between driving for Williams and Mercedes.
“The spirit at Williams was immense,” he said. “Everybody there worked so hard. They were so passionate and they loved Williams.”
“But throughout my time, it was going through a difficult period. And of course now, through the sale of the company, the takeover. And now the change in ownership. That really is a team on the up and it really takes time to refine everything.”
“At a team like Mercedes, they’ve had so much success,” Russell added. “Toto’s been at the helm for so long and the culture is sort of ingrained within everyone here. It’s like a well oiled machine working on all cylinders always.”
