With George Russell winning a podium ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton in Australia, along with the fact the young British driver is now in second place in the Formula 1 championship standings, it is becoming clear that Russell getting to grips with the tricky Mercedes W13 better than his team mate.
Something proven in his post race talk, sounding very much as if the youngster is assuming the role of team leader compared to a ‘team player’ sounding Hamilton and even Wolff sounded downbeat about the F1 championship prospects.
Certainly, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has already written off the world championship title, throwing in the towel saying “We are lacking everywhere,” to Sky, admitting that the car had to improve in virtually every area. This is in contrast to Russells’ positive stance of the situation.
Facts are backing up the fact that currently, Mercedes are making the best of a poor car situation, shown by the Silver Arrows being in second place in the drivers’ and team standings. Mercedes rookie George Russell is 34 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the team 39 points behind Ferrari. Of course, Red Bull’s astonishingly poor reliability is helping massage these tables.
Nevertheless, Russell remains bullish compared to his boss declaring that “We will never give up,”
“This weekend we were way behind our rivals, but now we are on the podium,” says Russell,
“We have to continue in the same way while we are still behind. We have to take our chances on points and then I’m sure we’ll be back in a few races.”
The Mercedes certainly seems to look better during the Melbourne race, the team’s form looked much better than it did in qualifying.
One thing is different from previous years, though, Lewis Hamilton will no longer get extra support from Valtteri Bottas, as he did for years before. After a good start passing the McLaren into third place, the seven-time world champion fell behind his team-mate George Russell after the pit stop through no fault of his own, but was made to stay behind him as well.
“I couldn’t fight for third place because the engine overheated,” Hamilton reveals,
“That’s why I had to take a back seat and get in line, but we scored as many points as we could as a team and that’s great.”
Is there already a changing of the guard in the Mercedes team? At least verbally, Russell is already taking on the leader role.
“Of course you always want to be ahead of your stablemate, but for us it’s central that we make the car faster. If it’s between me and Lewis for fifth and sixth place, I don’t care who’s in front.”
This is not just a driver talking, but someone who already sees himself as a mouthpiece. Perhaps this will be an even bigger problem for Wolff than the slowness he has discovered at the moment.
Your spin and hate for Hamilton is absolutely ridiculous. Do you actually believe any of the BS you spew here? They are pretty even and Hamilton has been marginally faster other than when he had a poor set up in Saudi Arabia. The pit stop for George during a safety car was the only reason he was 3rd instead of Hamilton.
You all are writing up so easy Hamilton ,but know one thing you will never have a drive like him Hi is one and only one to have a 8 WT , It was the mess caused from fucking arabs and red bull shit that cose all this but als mercedes you need to do everthing to make it possible. As for Rusell he is a good driver but you shuld show him his place he must do everything for Sir Hamilton his time will come , but not now .
Omg… why are all Hamfosi so hypersensitive? It’s almost like a cult.
You mean like when anyone criticises your hero Crashstappen and you don’t leap all over it like a rash! You are a hypocrite Duckey.
what a pish article clearly know nothing about F1, if we assume your right then perez is now the leader of red bull too instead of crashtappen? lol
As much as people don’t like Hamilton for his opinions, politics etc, including me, there’s no denying of the fact that he is one of best F1 drivers… GR is just a toddler compared to him. And with this crappy take on Hamilton, it proves that you are an absolute troll and clickbaiting…
Come on guys. This thejudge13, infamously known everywhere as Hamilton hating forum. Don’t take this article seriously.
Are you serious!!! 3 races in and you writing this garbage?think time for you to look for a different career.
Agree with the other comments from Huntbri and Linus.
Must be hard to swallow that a poor black man came and took over let’s be honest a rich white man’s sport, you tosser
Ignoring that Hamilton was fighting Perez for position just before the safety car gave Russell a free pit stop and put him ahead of Hamilton.
This is a rubbish article written by a twisted mind. It’s all about the hate for Sir LH. 3 races is too early to conclude not unless you’re an idiot like this writer
don’t understand what motivates someone to establish a website solely for the purpose of trashing someone who everyone with any knowledge of the sport knows to be one of the goats you should try to stop hating so much and as someone once said calm down it’s not good for you . the best are not infallible but will always show their superiority eventually just look at le clerc another who anyone with any clue knows to be a potential great but who was beaten over the season by saint last year oh and for the record lewis has out qualified his teammate 2 to 1 and but for the safety car would have beaten him 2 out of 3 races so far this season
don’t understand what motivates someone to establish a website solely for the purpose of trashing someone…..
You do realise that he only does it as it generates him the most amount of web traffic – ergo, clicks