“The reputation he had is the same as Max Verstappen has now": George Russell on beating Lewis Hamilton as teammates

George Russell has left it up to fans' judgment to decide if he beat Lewis Hamilton in the same car last season, as the driver continues to thrive in the leadership role at Mercedes. The Brit joined the German team in 2022 as the young driver alongside the 7x F1 champion.

In their three years together, the two drivers were closely matched. In 2022, Russell surprised a lot of people when he beat Hamilton in the standings. This was a statement of sorts from the driver who had spent multiple seasons driving the uncompetitive Williams.

Lewis Hamilton evened things out in 2023 when he outscored his younger teammate by putting together a brilliant season. The 2024 F1 season, however, was the one where George Russell pulled away in the intra-team battle. The Mercedes driver had a clear edge over his veteran teammate, who was looking ahead to life at Ferrari.

Talking to Motorsport Total, Russell remembered that being Hamilton's teammate in 2022 was looked at in the same way as being Max Verstappen's teammate right now. He said:

“I’ll leave that to your judgement. I just ride, week in, week out. I’ve always said that I’m not afraid to be anyone’s team-mate. At the end of 2021, Lewis was the hottest property in the field. Nobody would have thought that anyone at Mercedes could beat him as a team-mate. I came in and performed from the first race. I always believed in myself."

Russell added:

“The reputation he had is the same as Max has now. Nobody believes that Max is beatable. And people thought the same about Lewis back then. People forget that Lewis came into Formula 1 as a rookie and finished on the podium every time in his first [nine] races, with a two-time world champion as his team-mate. That says a lot.”

Lewis Hamilton's former teammate not worried about a lack of title battle

F1 Grand Prix of Spain - Source: Getty

While George Russell has his exploits in F1, the Mercedes driver has yet to battle for a title in his career. As it turns out, the driver is not too bothered. The driver gave the example of champions from Lewis Hamilton's generation, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, who had long career droughts, as he said:

“Look at Fernando [Alonso]: He comes in, wins two titles in his first four years, and people say, ‘He’s going to get ten.' He hasn’t won a title since. Or Sebastian [Vettel]: He wins four and then no more. If you look at Michael Schumacher, it took him five years at Ferrari before he won his first title there. This is now my fourth year at Mercedes, next year will be my fifth…”

He added:

“Nobody knows when their time will come. You just have to make sure that you keep performing consistently, keep delivering. And what happens then — only time will tell.”

Lewis Hamilton is a great example of a driver who had a long career drought from 2008 to 2013 before he won again in 2014. These are part of the sport, and George Russell would bank on Mercedes coming good after a lean period.