3 reasons why George Russell MUST BEAT Lewis Hamilton in the 2023 F1 season

Mercedes has arguably the best driver line-up on the entire grid with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell behind the wheel. Both drivers are arguably capable of winning World Championships (well, one of them has already won seven).

They did, however, not have a great season in 2022. The car was just not good enough to give both of them the ability to fight for the title. The team did end up scoring a ton of podiums last season and a surprise wins in Brazil with George Russell.

There was, however, an interesting observation when the season was done and dusted. The youngster, George Russell, who was in his first year at Mercedes, had outscored his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

To further accentuate the point we made there, George Russell had outscored an all-time great Lewis Hamilton, who was still in his prime. The achievement did not get as much acclaim as it should have to be fair. Many put this down to Lewis not being as motivated early in the season while others put it down to him being just unlucky in all of this.

The achievement has been put down so much that there aren't many that feel George Russell could be a contender for the title this season. This season, title contender or not, George Russell has to beat Lewis Hamilton.

2022 will be looked at as a fluke

As far as performances in the debut season go, what George Russell did last season ranks very highly amongst some of the best performances a driver can put together in his first season in a top team.

He was consistent, he was the one who scored the standout results as he secured the only pole position and the only win for the team. Most importantly, he scored the most points for the team and beat a seven-time world champion, a driver who has been a part of the team for almost a decade and dominated the sport doing that.

Having said that, while there are many F1 pundits that have given Russell his due, there are still others that feel Lewis still holds the edge in the intra-team battle. Many feel Lewis was either unmotivated or plain unlucky and hence lost out to Russell last season. This season, however, Mercedes is expected to be much more competitive. If this time around Lewis Hamilton ends up outscoring George Russell, then what all those critics have said will prove to be correct.

What that would also do is discredit the kind of season George Russell put together last year. For Russell to prove that 2022 was not a fluke, he needs to build on his performance and not drop off from that.

George Russell is positioning himself as a Lewis Hamilton successor

The reality of George Russell replacing Valterri Bottas was not because Toto Wolff was looking at a like-for-like replacement. However, he looked at Lewis Hamilton's successor and wanted to test the talent that was going to be the future of the team.

In his very first season with the team, Russell passed the test with flying colors. He showed that he can compete with the best of them and proved to be a more than capable driver in the circumstances.

The reality of the F1 ecosystem right now is slightly different. Mercedes does not only need a driver that can be Lewis Hamilton's successor. It also needs someone who can beat Lewis Hamilton. Why? Because if this was something that the 2021 F1 season proved, then it was the fact that Lewis Hamilton was not the best driver on the grid.

In a similarly performing machinery, Max Verstappen was clearly the better driver all season as he made much lesser mistakes and was more consistent. If George Russell is losing to a driver that is, on evidence, in the last two seasons, not as impressive as the current champion, then that's a concern.

It will prove that Mercedes does not have the best possible talent on the grid. For George Russell, that will not fare well and once Lewis retires, the German team might end up looking for the next big thing on the grid.

He risks getting slotted in Valterri Bottas' role

Lewis Hamilton, in all likelihood, is getting a new contract that will give him two more years at Mercedes. What this also means is that the George Russell-Lewis Hamilton partnership might be one that the team sticks with for the long term.

This season, in a car that would (in all likelihood) fight for the title, George Russell cannot afford to become the B-side because that would set him on a dark path trodden by his predecessor. The story of a second driver in a dominant team is often categorized by this slowly deteriorating level of performance which is more of a mental regression rather than physical.

Valtteri Bottas was very impressive in his very first season at Mercedes. He was surely not performing at the level that Lewis Hamilton did but on his day he was unbeatable.

However, as the season progressed, the emotional load of continuously losing to Lewis Hamilton took its toll on the Finnish driver and his performance deteriorated. George Russell is arguably a much more competitive talent than Bottas but if he ends up being in the supporting cast this season, it will be the start of a snowball effect and he could end up falling into the same cycle as Bottas did.