When George Russell came to Mercedes in the new era of Formula 1, the team came off an eighth consecutive constructors’ championship title. Joining from Williams racing, the driver received the task of going up against 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in equal machinery. A task that admittedly weighed heavily on Russell as he was doubting everything.
Reality hit him hard as Russell had never been in a situation like that before. Going up against one of the best in the sport on a team that was built around him. While Russell had previously dominated teammate battles by winning the large majority of intra-team fights, he now had to be satisfied with just barely beating his teammate over a season. A change in mentality that took a while to adjust to.
The intricacies of racing next to Lewis Hamilton
Just before joining Mercedes, Russell was really struggling to grasp the concept of racing next to Lewis Hamilton. He couldn’t even grasp the concept of actually beating him. In time, his understanding of beating a teammate changed drastically. An understanding that is vital if you race and compete at the very top.
Here’s what Russell said during a recent interview with the UNTAPPED podcast:
“I’m stepping into his team where he’s been for 10 years, everything’s built around Lewis. I’m coming in, I feel fast, I feel young, I feel healthy and ready to take the fight. But you just don’t know.”
“I think my stats against previous teammates, where I finished ahead of them like 95% of the time. I concluded, well, if I beat Lewis in a season, that’s going to be an amazing achievement. But I’m not going to beat him 95% of the time.”
Russell continued on what it really takes to beat a teammate over the course of a full Formula 1 season. Concluding that he doesn’t need to beat Lewis 95% of the time, just 55% is enough. He doesn’t need to beat him at every race; he is allowed to lose to one of the best ever, and that’s okay.
At the moment, George Russell has the most podium finishes of any other non-McLaren driver and is one of 2 drivers who actually won a race in the 2025 season. Showing that even in lesser material he has what it takes to fight for victory at the highest of levels.
The biggest rival of Russell is himself
Russell opened up on joining Mercedes back in 2022. He came into the team that Lewis Hamilton had won so many titles with and was directly compared to him, being teammates and all.
“I was thinking about how I’m going to deal with this psychologically until sort of one day, I had a really good conversation with my psychologist about it, like how I should deal with the pressure of being his teammate.”
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“I concluded that when I walk into the garage, I’m jumping into MY race car, I’m putting MY helmet on, I’m putting MY visor down, it should not matter if my teammate on the garage next door is a seven-time world champion, or if he’s a rookie, or if there’s nobody there, because I’m in control of my own destiny. And that’s the approach that I had. It’s like, I’m now, this is on me to perform.”
With that mentality, we saw Russell emerging victorious in the battle of teammates by finishing 35 points clear of Hamilton back in 2022. A feat that no one had accomplished since Jenson Button back in 2012 when the pair were racing at McLaren Mercedes.
