20/07/2024
NEWS STORY
George Russell believes that had Mercedes been able to turn its fortunes around sooner Lewis Hamilton might not have made the shock move to Ferrari.
The Briton's comment comes as the Silver Arrows chases down its third successive victory, which, if successful, would mark the first time since the ill-fated 2021 season.
While Russell took a somewhat fortuitous victory in Austria, a week later his teammate scored an emotional win at Silverstone.
The back-to-back victories have put Mercedes back in the title fight and appear to mark the end of a lean spell which effectively began in the aftermath of Abu Dhabi 2021.
Indeed, Hamilton's Silverstone win was his first victory since 2021 and came months after the seven-time world champion shocked the world with the news that he is heading to Maranello in 2025.
However, had Mercedes turnaround come sooner, Russell believes his teammate would never have made the switch.
"I don't think he would have left if the team was performing like this," he told Reuters. "No way he would have left, for sure not.
"For 2026 the PU's looking really strong," he added, "and everything we're doing with the fuels is looking great. There's a lot of optimism for us over the next couple of years.
"As tough as these last few years have been, it really feels like we've got the momentum with us now," he insisted.
Indeed, for Hamilton it may well be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire, for Ferrari, which failed to achieve title success with the likes of Prost, Alonso and Vettel, still appears fully capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Nonetheless, Russell understands why Hamilton might be seeking a fresh challenge.
"Everybody wants change at some point," he said. "He's been here twelve years now, he's achieved so much with the team. I think for him it's exciting to have that change.
"But of course if the team you're currently with are winning races and everything is looking super great for the future, you just want to be in the fastest car possible and it doesn't matter what colour that is.
"It's been an incredible turnaround," he said of Mercedes. "At the start of this year we knew we were taking two steps back with the car to give ourselves the possibility of three steps forward.
"When you start the season on the back foot you kind of question yourself, have you made the right decision, but the improvements we brought to Montreal have delivered so much performance and lap time. We've led the last four races at various points, we've been without doubt the quickest in qualifying and the race in two of those four races. It's really exciting. It's come at a great time for us.
"It just kind of feels like it's clicking now," he added. "It just kind of feels like the Mercedes of years ago.
"It's never one person but just having James taking all the ideas and steering in the right direction and empowering the people to go and do it has been great."
Check out our Friday gallery from the Hungaroring here.