15/11/2022
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton dismisses speculation that George Russell's increasing confidence at Mercedes could lead to friction within the team.
Coming off the back of a weekend in which Lance Stroll sought to nudge teammate Sebastian Vettel into the boondocks, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon played silly buggers (again), Charles Leclerc called on Carlos Sainz to give up a podium finish and Max Verstappen was... well, Max Verstappen, one has to wonder whether George Russell's increasing confidence might lead to similar 'unrest' at Mercedes.
Currently leading his renowned teammate by 25 points, Russell has scored Mercedes only win of the season and its only pole.
Though none are doubting Hamilton's competitiveness, with Russell's obvious determination to establish himself, one cannot help but feel the impending cry of 'the King is dead, long live the King!', after all it appears to already be happening at Sky Sports.
Not so, insists the seven-time world champion.
"I'm a lot older and I've been with the team so long," says the Briton. "So managing whatever challenges we come up with moving forward, we've been through so much that I don't think it's going to be a problem."
A long-time member of the Mercedes operation, Hamilton was never in any doubt of Russell's talent.
"I've seen what he did at Williams," he says. "I think naturally you have to say it's impressive what he's done this year, the consistency he's had, how he's arrived and just hit the ground running.
"It's not like he arrived in a completely brand new team," he adds. "The previous couple of years he was sitting right behind me watching the work that I was doing with the engineers, with Ricky who, who is now his number one.
"It's been super easy to blend in. He uses my steering wheel, and he's obviously got to do the test days prior to the year, so I think he's just blended in perfectly and he's been a positive force in the team.
"He's helped keep the equilibrium in the team, in terms of the working relationship I think it's strong."
They are both alpha drivers and this is good," adds Toto Wolff. "We don't want a puppy in the car. We manage that as well as we can."