George Russell feels a weaker teammate and a dominant Mercedes potentially masked Lewis Hamilton's declining form

George Russell feels it's hard to compare Lewis Hamilton's current situation to how he was when he drove for Mercedes when the car was dominant, as the dynamics were quite different. Since the 7x F1 champion dropped the title in 2021 and following the introduction of the ground effect era, things have not gone well for the legend.

In 2022, he was teamed up with Russell, a young and hungry driver who was making the most of the opportunity to race at Mercedes. By the time the first season ended, Hamilton had been outscored by his teammate for the first time since 2016. Things got a bit better for the driver in 2023, but 2024 was another year where the driver couldn't keep up with his teammate.

Moving to Ferrari has opened a completely different can of worms, as Lewis Hamilton has struggled to keep up with Charles Leclerc as well. This has led to conversations even around the driver's declining form. In a conversation with BBCF1, George Russell was even questioned if the F1 legend has seemingly dropped off, to which the Brit had an interesting take.

According to Russell, Lewis Hamilton is in a completely different environment from how things were in his dominant era. The Brit pointed out that at the time, because of how dominant Mercedes was and how Bottas was not as big a challenge, the driver could operate at 98% and not make mistakes. He said (via BBC):

"When you've got a car beneath you that's so good, you don't have as much pressure. You can afford to drive at 98% everywhere and still win the race. And if you're not being challenged by the guy in the garage, in your own garage, everything's just coming easy. You only see those mistakes creeping when there is a bit more pressure from within or the circumstances change."

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George Russell talks about his struggles when he first joined Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton's teammate

George Russell debuted in F1 in 2019, and it took him three years to ultimately get promoted to Mercedes. The driver also compared his struggles early on when he joined the team as Lewis Hamilton's teammate in terms of how much he had to learn before he could get comfortable within the team. He said (via BBC):

"When I joined Mercedes, the first six months were tough getting attuned to working with new people. Obviously, the engineers I'm working with now are used to setting up a car for a different driver and a different driving style, and I'm used to driving a car with a different driving style. So it's a combination of a bunch of different things."

The two drivers have now taken divergent career paths, with George Russell seeing it through at Mercedes while Lewis Hamilton moved to Ferrari. It will be interesting to see the direction the duo's respective careers take from here.