Since 2022, George Russell has been driving for the Mercedes team and the Briton probably imagined it differently than how things are going now. Indeed, since 2022, Mercedes has been struggling in Formula 1 and the German team managed to win just one race, while Mercedes was constructors' champion every time in the eight years before that. Russell has missed the Mercedes success and argues that he has been at Williams for too long.
Russell made his Formula 1 debut in 2019 with the Williams team as a Mercedes junior. Eventually, the Briton drove for three years at the team in the rear of the field. In 2022, Russell finally got the chance to drive alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Since the two Brits were teammates, Russell managed to score Mercedes' only victory.
Russell sat too long at Williams
Because Russell had to wait a long time for promotion to the Mercedes factory team, the one-time Grand Prix winner missed out on the German constructor's many successes, and a video from Sky Sports makes it clear that the Briton balks at this.
In the video, Russell sat at a lie detector and was asked difficult questions, then, of course, there was checked whether the Mercedes driver was telling the truth. One of the many questions was whether Russell felt he spent one season too long at Williams. To this, the Briton had a short but clear answer: "I think two seasons." And no, Russell was not lying here.
There is a very strong consensus that had George joined Mercedes in 2021 he would currently be a 1 x World Champion having driven the rocket that year with Max winning in 2022 with also 1 under his belt and heading for 2 in 2023.
well seeing as he destroyed Lewis in 2022, and brought home Merc’s only victory that year, i’d say it’s more than likely.
This kid hasn't accomplished anything and he thinks he is better than anyone else. Kind of arrogant if you ask me. I hope when Mercedes gets a winning car again Lewis blows him out of contention. He needs to know his place.
I wouldn't call beating a 7 time WDC teammate, at your 1st year within a new team......nothing? He is a talented young lad......but what we need to see now from him is less talking, stepping up his game and let his performance on the track do the talking
I used George being better for kicks to poke fun at Merc and its fans but George doesnt shine a torch to Lewis in reality. There were too many variables in 2022 to provide any kind of comparison. This season is showing George to be second rate currently. He has made so many rookie mistakes this past 2yrs and continues to do so even in Canada. George says he spent 2yrs too many at Williams. He should have stayed another 2yrs to iron out his racecraft.
@Mikey I wouldn't call 2022 a beating, Lewis was the one testing a trying to find the balance on the 2022 car. This year is more representative, and so far Lewis is looking better. I would say give them both a winning car and Lewis will take him to school. Goerge is good but he isn't Lewis IMO.
Yeah, how convenient......I'm doing some testing so don't dare to say a single word about my performance over an entire season. Do you really think that a top team like Merc would give all the good stuff to a newbie and use their golden boy 7 time world champ like a Guinea pig? Russelll debunked that testing narrative by confirming that they both did their fair share of testing, often switching from race to race
Probably George is testing the car this year. I think he will bounce back despite having lost some momentum in the last few races. He needs to get his head straight, he seems distracted.
Doesn't sounds very nice to all the people at Williams, not to forget all the mistakes he made at Williams and still continues to make at Mercedes. All expected from a beginning driver, but still not very professional to burn the bridges that helped you get there.
That’s because Mercedes kept Bottas when they were dominating. But now MB fans can’t forgive RB for keeping Perez in their team. Toto could’ve pull Russell in any point, but he didn’t. Why is that (MB fans) ??
With what Russell was doing at Williams in 2019, Mercedes should already have put him in the team from the 2020 season. However, Toto did not want to give a talented team mate to Hamilton so that he can go on to break all the records of wins, qualifying records etc totally unimpeded by his team mate and thus kept him on for two more seasons, and Russell had to endure fighting in a back marker team for two more seasons.
Yes because now that George is in the team he has totally dominated Lewis with a monumental 0.012s advantage in qualifying pace. Clearly all of Lewis's records would have vanished were it not for the maniacal manipulations of the machiavellian Toto Wolff.
Zvez, ALL of the teams want to win the constructors Championship and finish 1 2 in the drivers championship, unless you know otherwise none of the teams can do better than that, so it's not just MB that had a clear no 1 and no 2 driver, would they have won more than 7 from 7 if George was in the car instead of Bottas ? Checo is currently holding onto 2nd but that won't last unless he gets his head back in the game, personally I'd love to see Alonso in the other RB because we would see Max having to fight for the wins rather than them being gifted to him by slower teams and/or a lacklustre team mate
What do you mean would MB win all of those 7 if Russell was in the team? Russell beat Lewis one year already, and is pretty close now but he had his unlucky moments, but he’s miles ahead Bottas for sure. And Mercedes was miles ahead from competition from 2014-2020 who could beat them in that time? They would maybe have Russell taking a title some year instead of Lewis, but nothing would change for the team. They would still have drivers and constructors just more convincingly. Mate Checo is doing a great job, but he had two bad races and you guys are like ‘he’s ruining RB’ really?? The guy was unlucky in Canada, big deal mate. Red Bull has almost double amount of points to second team, so how is Checo stopping them on that? You can win constructors title without having 1-2, you can have 1-5 and everything in between and still win constructors. Team only care about drivers and constructors title and they don’t care at all if their second driver finishes 2nd of 5th as long as they got the titles. I would love to see Alonso in RB, but it’s easy to say that mate, what’s complicated is getting him in RB. Aston did a tremendous job this year, why would Alonso go to RB if he believes their goals and that’s catching and surpassing RB, plus Alonso know how hard it is to beat Max. And those notions that Max never had strong teammate, what about Sainz? A guy who beat Leclerc and he’s doing it again this year. RB will probably bring Norris at some point but for now why would they do that immediately?? Gasly, Albon and Kvyat had a reputations of big talents until they shared a seat with Max.
Ok Zevz, lets just get your RB blinkers off for a moment and approach your comments one at a time.. MB won 7 from 7, George being in the other MB wouldn't have made any difference to that result ....correct Yes, Russell beat LH last year, no argument there ..correct Yes, MB was miles ahead of the competition ( very much like now with RB actually ) so again George being there wouldn't have made any difference, other than the fact that he may have won title(s) rather than LH, so why would it have been more convincing ? BUT he wasn't so thats hypothetical anyway..correct No, you're wrong in telling me I implied that Checo is ruining RB, I said that Checo needs to up his game ..correct Yes, the constructors title DOESN'T need drivers to finish 1 2 in the races just 1 2 at the end of season, but my comment was that Checo is in danger of not helping with that unless he ups his game..correct Yes, We are both agreed it would be brilliant if Alonso could get in the second RB, the complication would be that they wouldn't want Max to come under pressure from the other driver, so far other than Checo being closer to Max than previous drivers, they have all been clear no 2's ..correct I actually think Alonso would go to RB PROVIDING he had a fair crack of the whip and NOT sign as a no 2, he's wants to win a title again..agreed ?!! Max and Sainz have already been team mates, would Carlos want to do it again ? I don't know, your thoughts on that ? Norris is carrying the McL at the mo and his talent is being wasted however I don't personally believe a move to RB is a good move as a Max no.2, yes, he may win the odd race but no more than that because RB wouldn't allow that to happen
evening Zvev, my reasoning behind RB NOT wanting a highly competitive 2nd driver is two drivers constantly battling for wins CAN cause issues Alonso and LH McL each taking wins from each other cost them the 2008 championship... Kimi nicked it Mansell and Piquet Williams each taking wins cost them 1986 championship... Prost won it LH and Rosberg caused a lot of friction at MB fortunately the car was dominant enough that another team couldn't get close. Vettel and Webber caused a lot of friction at RB fortunately the car was dominant enough that another team couldn't get close . Hence my comment about a 2nd driver driving to team orders my comment about the teams wanting 1 2 at the championships end is purely based on the amount of prize money they would receive rather than a 1 3 or a 1 5 or whatever. I'd still like to see Alonso in the other RB tho have a good evening, chat again
I don’t have any blinders mate, but you do. It’s not crucial to have 1-2 in standings, RB last year had 1-3 and they took that title by 200+ points ahead. 2018 you got 1.Lewis 2.Seb 3.Kimi 4.Max and only then Bottas on 5th and Mercedes still took constructors by almost 100 points ahead of Ferrari. And they didn’t fire Bottas after that MB bs that you’re talking about is that thing you said about Alonso and Norris hypothetical RB treatment. When did RB offered a 2nd driver contract to anyone?? “RB wouldn’t allow Norris to win more then few odd races” How would they stop him?? Who was ever forbidden from being faster than Max? What would you say if RB fan say “look at Russell this year, Toto had that talk with him last winter and now he’s not allowed to beat Lewis” Stop it mate, that’s crazy talk. RB is like any other team, they treat drivers based on performance.
Sure buddy, like Toto couldn’t pull Russell to MB any time he wanted. That contract was so strong mate. Only Sakhir 2020 can show you how strong the contract was. You got a team (who has their own reserve driver btw) takes another teams main driver to replace their sick driver and then they gave him back ? Imagine Leclerc getting a flu and Ferrari brings Verstappen to cover for him for one race ?.
I like George but so much of his talk these days alludes to his greatness. And he surely is talented. But if I was paired with a world champion who was consistently out qualifying me and had scored twice as many points as me I would keep quiet, work hard and try to close the gap. Being a teammate to Max, Lewis or Alonso is hard and your words ring hollow when you are consistently being beaten. And others begin to desire your seat.
You nailed it. I have done a complete 180. I have gone from enjoying George challenging Lewis to hoping a resurgent Lewis destroys him. Look for tensions in Mercedes to increase significantly
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