Lewis Hamilton is now officially a Ferrari driver and will want to fare better against Charles Leclerc than he managed at his last season in Mercedes where George Russell outperformed him.
George Russell has dismissed a Mercedes narrative that Hamilton was poor in the current generation of F1 cars because of his driving style after excelling.
Russell spent three years as Hamilton’s team-mate until the end of 2024. And he acquitted himself very well up against the seven-time F1 champion, including finishing above his fellow Brit in their final season together while beating him comprehensively in their qualifying head-to-head.
That whole three-year period was largely difficult for Hamilton. He did not win a race throughout the whole of the 2022 and 2023 seasons before finally ending that drought with victories at Silverstone and in Belgium last year.
And, last July, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin suggested that Hamilton’s struggles during the ground-effect era with the current generation of cars could be explained away by a clash in the 39-year-old’s driving style.
Shovlin said: “He’s struggled with this whole generation of car, really, not suiting his style. He’s been working on how he drives. But we had a huge amount of work trying to get the car to be quicker – it just hasn’t been quick enough – but also with a handling balance that the drivers can actually attack the lap on Saturday.”
Russell concedes that his own driving style seems to work well with this current crop of F1 cars. However, he rejected any suggestion that it is a major reason behind why he was able to perform so well in comparison to Hamilton during their time together.
He said: “I think probably my natural driving style has worked well in these cars. But, equally, my qualifying record against my team-mates in the previous generation was good and in every category, my qualifying records have been strong.
This has more to do with that generation as far as it goes I am not aware of anything particular with this generation . That’s true, though, but Lewis has been the toughest team-mate that I have had so that dividend applies to why it was highlighted most of the times.”
He also noted that he can afford to be more careful of his behavior now than he did six years ago since he is a driver with F1 supplies. He added: ‘Often as the season progresses you find out what is necessary to do to get the best out of the tyres, what is where you can take advantage of the car and where you need to be cautious because it is weak;’.
I have conscious awareness of where the strength and weakness exist and what issues I have to be careful of. However, I believe everyone gets that taste as the season unfolds. But also coping with disappointment? – I feel like I’ve been pretty good with not stressing the negative result and moving on, and learning from it, while I probably my younger self would have probably dwelled in that a bit more.”