Russell doesn't think about battle with Hamilton: 'Need to share data right'

Debut at Mercedes

After three seasons at Williams, Russell will finally get his chance at Mercedes in 2022. As a junior at that team, he basically did everything he needed to do to earn a seat. He won the GP3 title, the Formula 2 title, and beat his team-mate every year at Williams. In 2022, that CV will finally be rewarded.

However, an enormous challenge awaits Russell, because with Hamilton he will not meet just any opponent. The seven-time world champion has devoured many a team-mate and is no longer afraid of stiff competition. The internal struggle with Nico Rosberg made Hamilton a lot tougher in that respect, but in terms of driving style, however, Russell thinks they are close.

Russell's driving style

"I think we’re pretty similar. Time will tell and it is the question when asked what my driving style is. I answer truly and said I don’t really know. I want to be adaptable to the situation. I wouldn’t say I’m smooth, but wouldn’t say I’m aggressive either. From what I’ve seen, I think we have a similar way of driving by finding the limit of the tyre but not going over the limit. Pretty smooth with our general approach, but time will tell. I think we’ll be in a similar boat. I have no doubt we’ll be working well together," said the young Brit.

That collaboration is also smoother because the two have been working together for longer. Because Russell has been part of the Mercedes training program for some time, he also regularly joined meetings with the engineers. "We always knew that this was a big possibility that we could be teammates so we’ve always had a good relationship."

Collaboration with Hamilton

According to Russell, Hamilton has also put a lot of time into his younger compatriot to help him develop. That will be slightly less the case in 2022 as teammates, but Russell also stresses that co-operation will be essential between the team-mates. Especially now that the cars have changed so much because of the regulations, the team has to work one way and not work against each other.

''The rate of improvement will be massive this year, we need to be sharing as much data as possible, working as well as possible with each other because it’s in our own interest to have the fastest possible car. If that times comes then we can potentially worry about each other, but until then it’s full focus on making the fastest car for each other," Russell concludes maturely.