Lewis Hamilton finds himself in an unusual position with the first third of the 2024 F1 season underway.
At last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, he was beaten in qualifying by George Russell for the seventh time in eight races and, despite always being in the top three during practice, had to settle for seventh place on the grid, two places behind his team-mate.
Could George Russell take charge of Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton’s departure?
Hamilton’s comments after the session attracted a lot of attention, as he pointed out that Russell was “automatically” two-tenths of a second slower as a result of running the team’s only new front wing, and then bizarrely said that he “doesn’t expect to qualify ahead of George” in his final season with Mercedes.
But placing too much emphasis on Hamilton’s struggles would be to miss how Russell has returned to close to his best this year after a disappointing 2023 F1 campaign.
There were clear echoes of Charles Leclerc in Russell last season – a talented driver who was frustrated by the limitations of the car and robbed of the chance to make further progress in a promising 2022.
F1 2024: Race statistics
👉 F1 2024: Teammate qualifying match records
👉 F1 2024: Teammate head-to-head race statistics
With the reality that Mercedes and Ferrari are still not in a position to challenge Red Bull on a regular basis, it is little wonder that their performance has declined and mistakes have become more frequent.
While Charles crashed twice in the same place within 24 hours in Miami and was unable to drive a Ferrari on cold days in Barcelona and Zandvoort, George slammed into a wall in Montreal trying desperately to join the battle between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso and then overdid it in Singapore when he had a slim chance of winning.
Such is the nature of modern society and our tendency to jump to conclusions based on limited evidence, some people made their minds up at the end of last season about Leclerc and Russell, convinced that Ferrari and Mercedes needed to work harder to have any chance of beating Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
Much of the damage to their reputations has been self-inflicted, but with a new season, improved prospects for both teams and generally solid progress at Silver Corner, both Leclerc and Russell are reminders of their enormous potential and why they were so highly rated when they first joined F1.
More than two years on from being Hamilton’s team-mate, the fact remains that Russell’s most notable performances for Mercedes came while he was still driving for Williams.
This is no coincidence, either, as the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix was so far the only glimpse we’ve seen of Russell in a car with the potential to win regular races, and perhaps even the World Championship.
It’s been forgotten these days as memories fade and Mercedes’ post-2022 pecking order has become the new normal, but Russell’s easy entry into the cockpit of an unwell Hamilton and, in one fell swoop, effectively ending Valtteri Bottas’ career as a top F1 driver remains one of the most impressive feats in the sport’s recent history.
With the fresh wounds of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix added to the worst performing car of his F1 career in 2022, he is undoubtedly catching up to Hamilton at a good time, but Russell’s confidence to immediately match and sometimes beat the seven-time world champion when he steps into Mercedes has been taken for granted as well.
If he this Such was his impressive performance in such a short space of time that the night after the race in Bahrain, everyone wondered aloud how much better a driver he might be with a winning Mercedes all around him.
Nearly four years have passed, but it still remains an unanswered question hanging in the air, largely due to circumstances resulting from the team’s struggle to crack the ground effect code.
But the performance was not as impressive as Toto Wolf and company’s Intention With a truly competitive car on offer, this is not only possible, but can be achieved.
Russell’s impressive return for 2024 comes at an interesting time as Mercedes searches for a replacement for Hamilton in F1 for 2025. PlanetF1.com reports ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix that Carlos Sainz is no longer being considered (for now, at least) as a replacement for the vacant seat.
Mercedes are thought to be monitoring Max Verstappen’s situation at Red Bull and appear ready to promote 17-year-old Italian sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli as early as next season if the reigning world champion is not up for grabs.
But Wolf So They were determined to get Verstappen quickly. So I’m confident in Antonelli’s long-term potential, but what happens to Russell a year from now when his contract expires at the end of 2025? You can’t turn three into two.
But recall how Russell, promoted from Williams at the end of 2021, was portrayed as the face of Mercedes’ long-term future and the man to eventually succeed Lewis at the helm of Mercedes.
Has he done anything in the past few years to discourage his team from that view?
Russell’s arrival coincided with Mercedes’ decline and Wolff could not have asked for more from him given the circumstances.
The temptation to make a deal that would remind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren that the team is still armed and dangerous after two and a half dark years must have been overwhelming for Wolff, but Mercedes may already have everything they need for 2025 and beyond, if they can finally fix the car.
Hamilton’s replacement? Mercedes already found him three years ago.
His name is George Russell.
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