Lewis Hamilton reaction made George Russell’s life ‘Shaky’ and changed balance at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton was the far superior driver at Mercedes this season, having lost out to George Russell back in 2022.

Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve believes George Russell’s challenging season was down to Lewis Hamilton taking things up a gear – and that he is now the No 2 behind his more experienced compatriot.

Russell had won the intra-Mercedes battle in his first season with the Brackley-based outfit but was well beaten this year as Hamilton registered an impressive third-place finish in the Drivers’ World Championship, some 59 points ahead of his team-mate.

The ex-Williams star admitted that he had had a ‘scrappy’ season having struggled to find any consistency and finished the campaign with only two podiums to his name – four fewer than Hamilton.

Villeneuve was left ‘surprised’ by the huge margin that separated the two Mercedes drivers this season given Russell had seemingly established himself as the No 1 last year. However, he believes Russell’s life has been made harder this season after Hamilton finally recovered from the heartbreak of having the 2021 world title ripped away.

Russell had won the intra-Mercedes battle in his first season with the Brackley-based outfit but was well beaten this year as Hamilton registered an impressive third-place finish in the Drivers’ World Championship, some 59 points ahead of his team-mate.

“He was a new member of the team last year. The boy who recently moved from Williams. He didn’t need to concentrate too much on trying to win; all he needed to do was defeat Lewis. Thus, it was much simpler for him,” he told Planet F1 about Russell.
Lewis had to respond to suddenly not being in the car that can win races after losing a championship the year before. He took a while to respond, so I believe that got to him. And George’s life was made easier by that.

“This year, it’s been a little bit the opposite, because Lewis came back realising that he has to work like he used to work at the beginning of his career. And that’s changed the balance a bit. George came into the scene thinking, ‘OK, now I’m ahead of Lewis, I can fight, I’m one of the winners. That’s changed his mindset as well.”

Despite being convincingly beaten by Hamilton, and both drivers raising concerns about the W14 throughout the season, Russell remains bullish about Mercedes’ prospects for 2024.

He said: “Last year was most certainly a trickier vehicle to drive. However, as though it was for some teams, we made a few major upgrades, yet what has gotten us out this year originated from the colder time of year improvement. We took a misguided course. We committed a few errors, and that was obvious when we hit the track in Bahrain.

“Going into the third year presently, I’m sure we won’t misstep the same way. I’m sure we have a few decent gains over this colder time of year; we’re tracking down them right now. Yet, by the day’s end, it’s a relative game, and we don’t have the foggiest idea what our opponents will bring.”