“He has done great,” Valtteri Bottas gives his take on George Russell’s performance against Lewis Hamilton

“He has done great,” Valtteri Bottas gives his take on George Russell’s performance against Lewis Hamilton

George Russell and Valtteri Bottas

George Russell joined Mercedes this year, replacing Valtteri Bottas, who had been with the team since 2016. In this time, Bottas had some memorable points and finishes with the team, and was an amazing 2nd driver, who played a major role in making the team win continuous World Championships and still remains a great friend to Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff. After Russell was invited by Wolff, he had the opportunity of his lifetime, and Bottas went on to Alfa Romeo, the team that had a completely new set of drivers after Kimi Raikkonen’s retirement and Giovinazzi’s move to Formula E.

The new season did not turn out to be complete as Russell expected it. Mercedes struggled to cope with the new regulations and the W13 wasn’t even close to competing with the upgraded Ferrari and Red Bull, yet, Russell has managed to stay ahead of Hamilton. When compared with Russell; Bottas raced alongside Hamilton for the entirety of his career with the team, but he was never able to surpass the British driver in the standings.

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In light of Russell’s performance against the seven-time World Champion and the fact that the younger driver is currently leading the World Championship, he has been impressed.

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Valtteri Bottas genuinely impressed with George Russell 

Toto Wolff (L) and Valtteri Bottas (R)
Valtteri Bottas with his former team principal, Toto Wolff.

“I think George has done great, as expected,” Racing News quoted Bottas. “Especially as I know myself how tricky it is to beat Lewis, so yeah, he’s been doing a good job,” he concluded.

In terms of Russell, the former Williams driver admits that he is motivated to defeat every competitor, including Hamilton.

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