{"id":169485,"date":"2025-06-09T05:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/169485\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T05:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:47:09","slug":"key-lewis-hamilton-change-spotted-after-mercedes-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/169485\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Lewis Hamilton change spotted after Mercedes exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell has found a change in his relationship with Lewis Hamilton since his former teammate departed the Mercedes F1 team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the seven-time World Champion off to Ferrari, Russell has found that Hamilton is far more approachable \u2014 despite the ongoing frustration amidst Ferrari.<\/p>\n

George Russell spots key difference in Lewis Hamilton<\/p>\n

When George Russell was promoted to the Mercedes Formula 1 team, it was likely a daunting prospect. Alongside him would be none other than Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion in the throes of one of F1\u2019s most dominant winning streaks in all history.<\/p>\n

A lesser driver might have folded under the pressure, but Russell quickly proved himself worthy of such a top-level ride by outperforming Hamilton during two of their three years as teammates.<\/p>\n

In a sit-down interview with Motorsport Total\u00a0<\/strong>that touched on everything from a recent commercial to his place at Mercedes, George Russell also touched on how his relationship with former teammate Lewis Hamilton has evolved since the seven-time champion left the team.<\/p>\n

Russell was asked if his relationship with the driver had faded, to which Russell replied, \u201cNo \u2014 if anything, it\u2019s actually become a bit closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sometimes fly together and talk to each other more often off the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Russell couldn\u2019t pinpoint exactly what had changed between the two, he did acknowledge that he and Hamilton have always gotten along.<\/p>\n

\u201cLewis is someone whose company I really enjoy,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, he\u2019s extremely in the limelight, more than any of us \u2014 and sometimes a protective shield goes up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in an intimate setting, he\u2019s someone I get on really well with. It\u2019s nice to have someone like him, someone I can ask for advice from time to time, because he\u2019s at a completely different stage in his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formula 1, explained:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What is a Technical Directive in F1?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What is DRS in F1 and how does it work<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Motorsport Total<\/strong> circled back to the fact that Russell outperformed Hamilton while they shared a team \u2014 as well as the fact that Russell considers his former\u00a0 teammate the greatest driver in F1 history.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what does that actually say about you?\u201d Motorsport Total asked. \u201cWhat does it mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll leave that to your judgement,\u201d Russell said. \u201cI just ride, week in, week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said that I\u2019m not afraid to be anyone\u2019s team-mate. At the end of 2021, Lewis was the hottest property in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody would have thought that anyone at Mercedes could beat him as a team-mate. I came in and performed from the first race. I always believed in myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reputation he had is the same as Max has now. Nobody believes that Max is beatable. And people thought the same about Lewis back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople forget that Lewis came into Formula 1 as a rookie and finished on the podium every time in his first [nine] races, with a two-time world champion as his team-mate. That says a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

But where does Russell rank? Will he be the kind of driver capable of dominating World Championships, after it has taken him so long to get to a top-level team?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at Fernando [Alonso]: He comes in, wins two titles in his first four years,\u00a0 and people say, \u2018He\u2019s going to get ten,’\u201d Russel said. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t won a title since.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr Sebastian [Vettel]: He wins four and then no more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Michael Schumacher, it took him five years at Ferrari before he won his first title there. This is now my fourth year at Mercedes, next year will be my fifth\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The pattern doesn\u2019t guarantee Russell will be competitive in year five, but as he reckons, \u201cNobody knows when their time will come.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to make sure that you keep performing consistently, keep delivering. And what happens then \u2014 only time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0What happened to Michael Masi? Abu Dhabi 2021\u2019s controversial race director<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has found a change in his relationship with Lewis Hamilton since his former teammate departed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,9824,225,998,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-169485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-george-russell","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-lewis-hamilton","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114651833959665882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}