Jenson Button feels George Russell should avoid putting pressure on himself when he teams up with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next year.
Russel entered the world of F1 when he signed for Williams in 2019. He came to the sport with a lot of promise and has been frequently tipped as a future World Champion.
The young Briton was linked to a Mercedes seat for a long time before being officially announced as their 2022 driver in September. He replaces Valtteri Bottas at the Brackley based team, who moves to Alfa Romeo next year. Russell will team up with 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton.
2009 F1 Champion Jenson Button has some words of advice for Russell ahead of his move to Mercedes. Button spent last season in an advisory role with Williams, so he got to spend a lot of time with the 23 year old.
“He’s got to not put pressure on himself.” said Button.
“He can’t think ‘I’m going to get in the car and be quicker than Lewis on day one’. He’s got to build up to it. Otherwise he’s going to shoot himself in the foot. You can’t be too confident alongside Lewis.”
“The world saw a different version of Lewis Hamilton in 2021”
Hamilton went toe to toe with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen for the 2021 World Championship. The former lost it on the last lap in Abu Dhabi under controversial circumstances, but Button feels that this year ‘redefined’ the Mercedes driver’s approach.
According to Button, his former McLaren teammate is a lot more confident and composed behind the wheel than he was in previous years.
“Lewis this year is a very different Lewis to previous years, he was very relaxed, very confident in his ability.” said Button.
“If he was insecure in the past, that’s gone, and we have got a very different Lewis. It feels like he found himself this year.”
