F1 News
What would Hamilton have done better than Russell? 'Would've been on pole'
- GPblog.com
George Russell made an impressive debut with the factory Mercedes team at the end of last season. Had it not been for a catastrophic mistake by the team in the pits, it is highly likely that he would have won that race. On the face of it, he immediately performed at the level of Lewis Hamilton, who he replaced there, but what could the world champion have done better than Russell that weekend?
"Hard to say, because Lewis wasn't there and the plan for that weekend was the same as it would have been for Lewis," says Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows in Beyond the Grid. "It was a different track and Lewis’ natural talent makes him adapt very quickly to a track. His pole position rate is very high, so you would’ve presumed he would’ve been on pole."
"You would’ve presumed he’d have a good start and he would’ve led the race because that’s what he does most of the time. George did a fantastic job that weekend, but you’d have to presume, having seen what Lewis has done for the past decade, he would’ve been down the road a little bit", Meadows says
Russell given time to get used to the car
So apart from pole position and being 'further ahead', Russell's performance was what you'd expect from Hamilton. According to rumours, the weekend put a lot of pressure on the contract negotiations between Hamilton and Mercedes.
Simon Cole, the chief engineer at Mercedes, adds that they played it safe with Russell during the weekend. Procedures or experiments that they would have tried with Hamilton, they didn't do with Russell, giving him more time to get used to the car.