George Russell has insisted that there is ‘trust’ between himself and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton when going wheel-to-wheel. The pair came together on track a handful of times throughout the 2023 season, leading to questions about the viability of the Silver Arrows’ driver line-up.
Russell and Hamilton are considered to be two of the fastest drivers in F1 and their performances last season helped Mercedes to pip rivals Ferrari to second place in the Constructors’ Championship by three points, but close shaves on track nearly cost the Silver Arrows valuable points in that battle.
The pair nearly came together during qualifying ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in June, while Russell was left ranting on the radio after some hard battles at Suzuka later in the year. However, despite these near-misses, there was never any public fallout from within the Mercedes camp.
While the close calls in Barcelona and Suzuka were just that, things boiled over in Qatar. Hamilton enjoyed a strong launch on the soft compound tyre and attempted to make a pass for P2 around the outside of Russell. However, the seven-time world champion misjudged his move, turning in on his team-mate and bringing his own race to a premature end.
Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive F1 news.
Discussing the on-track clashes in 2023, Russell told Autosport: “I think it’s normal when you’re so close in performance, [and] when you’re lapping at the same lap times or you’re starting next to one another on the grid – you’re always going to be close.
“We always go through our strategies [in] meetings. The pace difference between the two of us is zero. We’re always going to be going across a 24-race season, an average of 60 laps per race, we cross paths a lot and he’s the driver I cross paths with the most. So, I think that’s probably what we put it down to. I think also we trust one another.
“There may be tense [moments], it may be hard, but we trust one another. We know that we’ll give each other enough space to fight necessarily and not go beyond the limit. Obviously, Qatar was just a bit of a lap one small misjudgement. That’s another opportunity where it was another podium or even a potential victory missed.”
On a personal level, Russell will be hoping that he can close the gap to his team-mate in 2024. After an immense maiden campaign with the team in 2022, his performances could have been more consistent last season The 25-year-old ended the campaign in P8 in the standings, 59 points behind Hamilton in third.
