George Russell on surpassing Lewis Hamilton in Driver Standings: “There was a time that if you finished ahead of him in a race, you’d win the race”

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were teammates at Mercedes until last year. But the times have changed drastically, as Hamilton has now switched to Ferrari, where he is yet to find his footing. Meanwhile, Russell is having a fantastic season and is just one position away from clinching his first win of the season, if McLaren misses the mark by chance. The roaring Mercedes driver has now said that if it was a different era, he would have already won two championships.
George Russell was reflecting on his past years at Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton was leading the World Championship. He stresses that it’s not him who has changed, but the times. Russell was two positions ahead of Hamilton in the Driver Standings when he joined Mercedes in 2022, and once again left him behind in 2024 when Hamilton started losing his winning streak.
Talking about his time with Hamilton, Russell told The Athletic, “Everybody is in Lewis’s shadow. Being teammates with a seven-time World Champion for three years is not straightforward. There was once a time that if you finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a championship or in a race, you’d win the race. Or, if you finished ahead of him in the championship, you’d win the championship. If my time was five years prior, you could argue I’d have two championships to my name.”

At present, Russell is in 4th place, while Hamilton, who now drives for Ferrari, is way behind in 7th in the Driver Standings. Opening up about the same, Russell said, “I’m just going about my business, as I have been the last couple of years. I’m working with the same group of engineers, the same group of mechanics. Obviously, Lewis was such a large presence that you know that he’s not around.”
“But on the day-to-day running of things, it is no different. I'm sat at my desk in front of my computer. I do my warm-up in my room, I jump in my race car, I put my helmet on. I want to control my own destiny first and foremost," he added.
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Russell has claimed three podiums in five races and is currently the only one, other than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, giving McLaren a tough competition. It may simply be a matter of time before he manages to surpass Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, and Verstappen to clinch a win.