‘Tension developing between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’: Toto Wolff on the relationship shared by the two Mercedes drivers

‘Tension developing between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’: Toto Wolff on the relationship shared by the two Mercedes drivers

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton

After a trial run at Sakhir 2020, George Russell has finally been promoted to the big seat at Mercedes beside Lewis Hamilton, where he has replaced the outgoing Valtteri Bottas. All eyes were turned to see how he would cope with the pressure of being Hamilton’s teammate, and how he would perform, and it is safe to say that Russell has exceeded expectations on every front.

Russell is currently 10 points ahead of his teammate, but earlier, this gap had been even larger. Indeed, not all of it is down strictly to performance, often times Hamilton had very bad fortune during the races, but for his first season at the big time, up against a seven-time world champion, Russell has performed admirably, and he has been absolutely fantastic.

What is good news for Mercedes is that the two teammates seem to have a fairly harmonious working relationship – on and off-track, and have performed (mostly) consistently really well. But what may not be such good news is that this relationship may not last in the future – when Mercedes are back at the top again.

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Toto Wolff: “When playing for the highest stakes I think it’s natural to have some tension”

Lewis Hamilton(on the left), George Russell(in the middle) and Toto Wolff(on the right)
Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Toto Wolff

The car has not been up to expectations, being the third best car on the grid, and so Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have not had much occasion or motivation to fight. While Lewis Hamilton struggled with the car for a bit, George Russell seemed to be better at grips with it – perhaps owing to his stint at Williams.

As reported by Planet F1, Toto Wolff said of the relationship between the two: “I think the biggest opponent for George and Lewis was the car, not the team-mate or other drivers. And that was certainly advantageous in some respects.”

He elaborated: “They used different solutions and set-ups, even a lot on some occasions, with the aim of exchanging impressions and useful information to come out of the situation we experienced.”

He thinks that if people respect each other ‘fundamentally’, then rivalries will not get out of hand. Mercedes have a good experience with this – with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton having a very icy relationship as teammates. While things calmed down with Valtteri Bottas, George Russell is certainly not in the team to be a number two driver.

Wolff concedes that it is ‘natural’ to have some tension at the highest stakes: “When the objectives become races and championships, I will be able to tell you whether the respect I see today between the two will prove to be a predominant factor. When playing for the highest stakes I think it’s natural to have some tension, but if people fundamentally respect and esteem each other then it will never go too far.”

Mercedes are not at the point of the highest stakes yet, but as Wolff has said, they aim to fight for victories by the end, and it will be interesting to see how the relationship between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton evolves. And if Mercedes have a championship-contending car next year, it will be even spicier.

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