George Russell faces criticism from former Red Bull driver: "He’s not the complete finished article yet"

Former Red Bull driver David Coulthard talked about George Russell's performance at the Spanish Grand Prix and stated that the young Briton still has some areas to work on.

The 25-year-old Mercedes driver has the potential to take on most drivers on the grid, but needs to improve to compete with teammate Lewis Hamilton and two-time world champion Max Verstappen.

Russell bagged his first podium of the ongoing season at the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing in P3 behind Hamilton and race winner Verstappen.

David Coulthard criticized George Russell's unnecessary contact with Hamilton during the qualifying session on Saturday. In an interview with Channel 4, Coulthard said:

"George has still got a little chink in his armor, that late movement in qualifying where they had contact if you remember he’s had some little drop-the-ball moments. He’s not the complete finished article yet. He’s pretty close. But Lewis Hamilton when he’s back, he’s back."

Former Williams driver Ralf Schumacher believes George Russell wants to compete with Hamilton and won't settle for secondary status in the team. He said:

“George didn’t want to give Lewis a slipstream and closed the door. This is my analysis. The young challenger wants to replace the top dog.”

George Russell calls the contact with Lewis Hamilton a big miscommunication

Russell was only given a warning for the incident on Saturday, explaining to the BBC Chequered Flag podcast that the incident was caused by "just a big miscommunication."

The 25-year-old justified himself by saying that there was a lot of traffic on the out lap, and he was just attempting to follow Carlos Sainz's slipstream when Lewis appeared. Though nothing major happened, he was quite disappointed not to be able to make it to Q3.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton suffered from damage to his W14, losing the end plate of his front wing.

Echoing Russell's statement, Hamilton also said that there was an error in communication. Although he acknowledged that the vehicle was pulling to the right after the crash, he seemed optimistic about the race on Sunday.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's "unfortunate" accident during Spanish Grand Prix qualifiers "looked silly."

Wolff told RacingNews365:

"Drivers from the same team don't want to crash into each other on the final lap of qualifying. It was just an unfortunate situation, George had just launched a lap and Lewis saw it as his last opportunity and didn't see that George was on that lap."

When questioned if the incident was caused by a procedural error, Wolff responded:

"It shouldn't happen - teammates should never collide, and even with another vehicle, you shouldn't clash in qualifying. Both drivers were summoned before the stewards with Russell receiving a warning."