“He needs to beat Lewis Hamilton,” Nico Rosberg believes George Russell needs to pose a stiff challenge to his team mate

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton

The ex-Mercedes driver talked about how being Lewis’s teammate, you have to manage to score as many victories as possible.

Mercedes have had a difficult start for them this season. Reportedly, the return of the ground effect in the cars is making Mercedes difficult to drive due to all the porpoising. George Russell, Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate, moved to Mercedes from Williams this year, and expected a change in result, as Mercedes were the best car until last year. Despite the difficult start, George Russell seems to be proving himself in the car as he had a better finish than Lewis Hamilton in three out of the four races held until now. The only race where he finished behind Hamilton was the Bahrain GP, where he did not seem to battle Hamilton much.

However, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton’s ex-teammate believes that Russell should try to win as many races as he can, as “it is only a matter of time before the British duo are fighting for supremacy on track,” quotes PlanetF1.

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Rosberg and Hamilton were teammates for four consecutive seasons, from 2013 till 2016. In this time, the duo shared immense battles which later turned into an infamous rivalry within the team. Things went on fire during the 2016 Spanish GP when Lewis Hamilton tried to overtake Nico Rosberg (seeing he was conserving power) and both the silver arrows made contact and crashed in an amazing way. Nico Rosberg went on to win his only World Championship in that season, which was followed up by his retirement from the sport.

“Especially against someone as great as Lewis it’s important for George to not show he’s just a walkover, to get the elbows out in a measured way right from the get-go and show Lewis ‘you need to respect me as well,” Rosberg quoted to Sky F1, carrying the experience of being Lewis’s teammate. This certainly means that George Russell will have to fight for his position, and prove to the team that he is better than what everyone expects him to be. Things could go his way unless Mercedes do the same that they did to Valtteri Bottas, their ex-driver (handed his position to Hamilton).

Nico Rosberg expects George Russell to stand up to Lewis Hamilton and prove that he is not a walkover in the sport

“It will be good to see how George manages that in the next couple of races, especially against Lewis once they start going wheel-to-wheel at some point,” said Nico Rosberg, who is most certainly worried about Russell’s future in the team, and wants him to perform the best he can and not be put under pressure by the team.

As the championship is underway, George Russell sits in 4th place in the standings with 49 points, a surprising 21 points more than Lewis Hamilton, who is in 7th with 28 points.

Also read: “Lewis Hamilton has to ask himself why George Russell is so much faster than him” : Ralf Schumacher