Lewis Hamilton and George Russell spent three years as Mercedes team-mates.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been team-mates for 3 seasons (Picture: Getty)
George Russell has revealed how former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was riled up by a prank performed by the Silver Arrows’ engineers when the Brit visited the workforce storage on the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
On the time, Russell was competing within the GP3 Collection and was already earmarked as a possible star of the longer term for Mercedes. The Norfolk-born racer gained the championship that 12 months by a powerful 79 factors, earlier than following it up by beating Lando Norris and Alex Albon to the System Two crown as a rookie.
Upon his first go to to the Mercedes storage in 2017, Mercedes engineers had lined the storage in images of Hamilton posing with a younger Russell. Nevertheless, it was the seven-time world champion, somewhat than the event driver, who was most embarrassed by the prank.
“First time we met one another would have been… I got here to Baku, 2017, that most likely was the primary time that we met one another,” Russell in a Mercedes-produced video, sitting alongside race engineer Marcus Dudley.
“I assume I used to be just like the annoying child because the reserve driver across the workplace, getting in folks’s method and whatnot. I bear in mind in Baku, it was my first race with you guys, in 2017. Evan, certainly one of our engineers, had printed off a photograph of Lewis and I from after I was, like, 10 years previous.
“And he positioned it round the entire workplace. He printed off like 30 items of this. And I believe Lewis was extra aggravated with it than I used to be. I assumed it was nice! This was pre-Lewis’s vogue sense, and I don’t suppose he appreciated it an excessive amount of.”
George Russell is able to struggle for an F1 title (Picture: Getty)
5 years later, Russell and Hamilton have been reunited as Mercedes team-mates, with the younger Brit getting the call-up after a powerful three-season growth stint with a struggling Williams workforce, throughout which he dominated team-mates Robert Kubica and Nicholas Latifi.
Now, after scoring two wins in every of the previous two seasons and shedding one to a disqualification in Belgium, Russell feels able to struggle for a title.
“[Last season was] positively my most strong by way of efficiency – most constant, least errors,” he defined after a robust 2025 marketing campaign. “So yeah, on the entire, it has been.
Race particulars, workforce updates, outcomes and opinion plus chosen gives and competitions Subscribe Invalid e-mail
We use your sign-up to supply content material in methods you have consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This will embody adverts from us and third events based mostly on our understanding. You may unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
“I positively know I can – I can combine it with these guys on the high. Max [Verstappen] is clearly the gold commonplace in the intervening time. He is the one which I might need to go head-to-head with, and I believe he is the one one that individuals would query. He is the one driver on the grid that you simply’d need to be team-mates with to see your competitiveness with.”
Keep up-to-date with the most recent F1 information Be part of us on WhatsApp
Our neighborhood members are handled to particular gives, promotions, and adverts from us and our companions. You may take a look at at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
Leave a Reply