F1: Can George Russell upstage Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in 2022?

George Russell comprehensively outperformed Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in round two
Getty Images

There is nothing new in Lewis Hamilton losing in his second grand prix against a team-mate, as he did to George Russell in Saudi Arabia last weekend.

He underwent the same fate alongside Fernando Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen and Jenson Button — his first three team-mates — before bucking the trend against Nico Rosberg and then Valtteri Bottas.

He currently has a pig of a car in Mercedes’ W13, porpoising its way down the straights in the Middle East leg of the season. In Bahrain, he extricated the maximum out of the car to finish in third; in Saudi Arabia, he had to make do with 10th, his third-worst finish in the past 12 years.

There were extenuating circumstances. Had the pit-lane not been shut, he would have been able to come in for fresh tyres while running sixth behind the virtual safety car and enjoyed a higher finish.

But, in truth, it was a weekend to forget and one in which he was outdriven by his new team-mate. Whether it proves a sign of the times and a changing of the guard remains to be seen.

For now, Mercedes have far bigger problems, working round the clock to find out how to make car they believe has so much potential to close the gap on both Ferrari and Red Bull.

When I asked Lando Norris ahead of the season start if Russell could beat Hamilton, he said: “Lewis has all the experience, but George has speed and good race-craft. He’s a very good driver. I think he can beat Lewis. It’s a very big ask, but many things that he has — talent included — lead me to believe he can. It’s not like I’ll be shocked if he does and shock if he doesn’t.”

Norris has seen Russell at closer quarters for longer than most. There are parallels to the pair’s season in Formula Two in 2018. After five race weekends undone by reliability issues, including two retirements and three finishes outside the top 10, Russell was 36 points in arrears to Norris. But crediting those around him who sorted out the issues with his car that year, he turned it around and won the championship comfortably.

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Lewis Hamilton could only finish 10th in a dramatic Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
AFP via Getty Images

The competitiveness of Formula One and having the most successful driver in the sport’s history as a team-mate is an entirely different prospect, but Russell has that head-down mentality, further instilled by some difficult years at Williams, where he learned to make the most of every opportunity, even if only scrapping for the minor placings.

Beating Hamilton in a straight race — good car or bad — is no mean feat. Only two drivers ever managed it — and both were world champions: Button and Rosberg. Mercedes believe, in Russell, they have another and have been grooming him for the opportunity.

As it stands, Hamilton and Russell are one apiece in their intra-team tussle, the latter as much off the pace of his team-mate in Bahrain as Hamilton proved to be to Russell in Saudi Arabia.

Quite how much that was down to different set-ups will perhaps become clearer at the next race in Australia in two weekends’ time, but it was the first time that he had lost out to his team-mate in both qualifying and a race for a full season.

That former team-mate, Bottas, spoke on the eve of this season to explain that it was the relentlessly high consistency of Hamilton’s performances which broke him down in a warning to his successor.

Russell took a difficult car to fifth place in Jeddah - the early signs of a changing of the Silver Arrows guard?
Getty Images

Whether Saudi marks a turning point for Russell, Hamilton and Mercedes in terms of ascendancy is a moot point.

Hamilton has been easily rattled in the past when a team-mate has proven a match for him, although he is a far more mature driver than when he lost out on the title to Rosberg in 2016.

For now, such is the inherent lack of pace with the Mercedes that Hamilton and Russell can only truly make do with a battle between themselves — and battle to make an extremely difficult car better.

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