Jacques Villeneuve claims George Russell had it ‘easy’ against Lewis Hamilton in 2022

British driver George Russell managed to outshine teammate Lewis Hamilton during his first season with Mercedes in 2022, Moreover, even though Russell finished below Hamilton in 2023, many people on the grid regarded his season to be better than the seven-time champion this year. Now, Jacques Villeneuve has revealed the reason for Russell’s easier stint against Hamilton last season.

The former world champion mentioned that George Russell’s 2022 performance surprised the paddock. Villeneuve recalled the last year when Russell was simply a young driver coming in from Williams. Due to this situation, Russell did not feel the pressure to win rather, he just needed to beat his counterpart, Lewis Hamilton. Hence, this was much easier for him to conquer according to the Canadian.

It’s surprising, Last year, he just came in as a rookie in the team. The new boy coming from Williams. All he had to do was beat Lewis, he didn’t have to focus too much on going for the wins. So it was a lot easier for him.

Villeneuve said, as reported by planetf1.com.

Additionally, Villeneuve also recalled that Hamilton had just lost the 2021 title before Russell joined the German team. The slower 2022 Mercedes car, in contrast to the rocketship of 2021, eased the challenge for Russell in outshining his teammate. As Hamilton had to compensate for the loss of performance. While Russell was used to mediocre F1 machinery with Williams.

Lewis had to react to having lost a championship the year before and, suddenly, not being in the car that can win easily. I think that got to him, it took him time to react. And that made life easy for George.

Jacques Villeneuve highlighted how the situation was reversed this year

However, the 2023 standings saw a P3 finish for Lewis Hamilton as compared to a mediocre P8 finish from George Russell. This year was much different for the two drivers according to the 52-year-old. Villeneuve exclaimed that Hamilton realized his mistakes and accepted that he needed to work like he did a decade ago.

Hence the balance between the two Britons was changed due to this. The Canadian also insisted on Russel’s mindset where he must’ve thought of himself as ahead of Hamilton in terms of performance and pace. Hence, this made Russell more comfortable and led him to have a tougher time as compared to last year.

However, both the drivers have put forth their best efforts despite a disappointing W14 from the team. As the F1 paddock heads into the winter break, multiple people from the crew expressed optimism over the development of the W15 for the next year. Hence, the Silver Arrows aim at a championship contention against Red Bull.

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