Former Mercedes F1 champion Nico Rosberg believes George Russell has been “phenomenal” in a testing Formula 1 season for Mercedes so far, but the 2016 world champion is also well placed to warn him that Lewis Hamilton “hates” losing to his teammate.
George Russell is currently fourth in the drivers’ championship with 111 points. He holds 34 points more than sixth-placed Lewis Hamilton, who described his car as ” un-drivable ” in Friday’s practice ahead of last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. George Russell has outscored his fellow British driver in seven of the nine races in the first half of the season. Lewis Hamilton outperformed George Russell for the first time since the opening round in Bahrain, giving him a podium finish in Montreal.
Nico Rosberg said on Skysports’ Any Driven Monday:
“George [Russell] did a great job, phenomenal with the difficulty of driving this car. To be so consistent, to drive so well, to not make any mistakes, to always get the most out of it, he’s really brilliant.”
“On Saturday he might have thought, ‘okay, let’s play it safe, I’ll bring another P4 or P5 home for qualifying’ but no! He said, ‘I’ll put my slicks on, I only care about pole position’. That’s really great.”
“Lewis [Hamilton] is driving at his best. He’s having an incredibly unlucky season with all these different things going against him. It was a normal weekend and he delivered it in his usual impressive way.”
“This driver pairing is so strong, unbelievable, but make no mistake, Lewis [Hamilton] passionately hates being second to a teammate, so he’ll be ultra-motivated and do everything he can internally.”
“The Mercedes in the race was really decent. I thought it was so great to see how George [Russell] progressed right after the start, passing car after car in the hairpin.”
“I think they [the Mercedes team] are making progress but there is still a way to go to reach the level of Ferrari and Red Bull. They can’t win at Silverstone, they are still too far away,” concluded the former German driver.
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Rosberg being a silly boy again, not enough balls to defend his title
So Simon , I’d like to see you slip your balls into an F1 and do better than last . Why should Rosberg continue , he won the F1 title . Not many do that
Hamilton hates everything that exposes how mediocre he actually is…
It’s funny how it is only armchair experts that consider him “mediocre”…. while anyone actually within the sport, with even an ounce of actual, skin in the game knowledge of what it takes…. well, doesn’t
It’s funny how you do exactly that. Judging from your armchair the f1 knowledge of people you literally nothing about
Rosberg never liked posing to a team mate. Unfortunately for him he post more to Hamilton than Hamilton did to him. That’s what RB should do and allow the drivers to race like mercedes do. May make it exciting for someone. You can’t keep telling drivers to let him pass or no racing. Mind you that happened a few times with Vettel.
Don’t think Mercedes drivers are racing. It’s seldom Lewis is on the same part of the track as George – who is ahead.
And… Toto admitted it was wrong and he would never let his drivers go all out to each other again.
G it’s the armchair experts that hate Hamilton for who he is. Yet the formula one experts and drivers class him as the best because they know. Your wasting your time with most in here when it comes to Hamilton. They can’t acknowledge that and won’t even when they know it’s true
It takes an armchair expert to know one…