“Had Lewis not been my team-mate this year”: George Russell sheds light on a different scenario at Mercedes if their 2022 did not work out
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Within a year of coming into Mercedes as the new recruit, George Russell has managed to wow everyone with his amazing performance as the young Briton got his team their only race win of the season at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil. For a couple of years, George Russell had been slogging away at Williams without any hopeful results because he did not have a suitable car to race for the top positions. But finally, George got his hands on the Mercedes and did wonders with it.
While speaking of how his first year at Mercedes has been like, George Russell made a joke that his teammate Lewis Hamilton has saved his F1 career. When asked to elaborate, the 24-year-old explained why he feels like he owes his British teammate his entire F1 career.
George Russell stepped into F1 as a Williams rookie in 2019 after achieving the Championship title in the previous Formula 2 season. After that, he spent three years at the far end of the grid with Williams, and came into Mercedes to take Valtteri Bottas‘ position in 2022. And as a first-timer at the Stuttgart-based team, George Russell left his mark with back-to-back top 5 finishes and a brilliant race win in Brazil.
George Russell admires Lewis Hamilton for continuing his racing career despite his age
Formula 1 is a youngsters’ sport as driver tend to retire from the tracks by the time they are nearing their 40s. But a blazing exception to this rule would be Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time World Champion has promised to not retire before claiming a record-setting eighth title even though he is currently 37 years of age. Speaking on this, George Russell said, “When you see the level he’s performing at, he looks young, he’s fit, he’s in shape. He’s enjoying racing.“
Russell also said, “I’ve got a lot to thank him for because had Lewis not been my team-mate this year, people would’ve thought very differently about me this year. I joke with him that he probably saved my career by staying on in Formula 1 this year because had he retired, and I had the exact same year as I’ve done this year, I’m sure perception would’ve been drastically different.”
According to Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, they have hit the jackpot with the perfect pairing of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as they are both exceptionally talented racers who compliment and challenge each other on the racetracks. While Mercedes missed out on a good performance record in 2022 due to the apparent lack of pace in their W13 racecar, it is expected that the German team will make a comeback next year.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)