George Russell is an exciting prospect of the Mercedes F1 team who wants to be a world champion in the future like his legendary teammate, Sir Lewis Hamilton. Albeit he felt like a rookie, he won his first race in Brazil last year. In his first year with the team, George Russell claimed the only victory for Mercedes in 2022. So from an individual standpoint, he had a pretty good start to his motor racing career. But even the 24-year-old racer is mature enough to look at the bigger picture.
The Silver Arrows had one of their worst years in motor racing in modern times, especially with the seven-time champ still around. Speaking of Lewis Hamilton, 2022 was a year better to forget. Last season became the first one for Hamilton to end without a single win. However, Hamilton’s junior teammate showed a lot of promise.
George Russell finished fourth in the 2022 championship with 275 points. The top three spots, Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes’ two rivals, took last season. Max Verstappen (champion), and Sergio Perez (3rd) for Red Bull. And Charles Leclerc managed to hold onto the second position for Ferrari. From 2014 to 2020, the Silver Arrows dominated the driver’s and constructor’s championships.
But in 2021, Mercedes lost their place to Red Bull after a controversial battle between Hamilton and Verstappen. Hence, what happened the following year was nothing short of a disaster for the Silver Arrows. However, the young English racer of the Brackley-based team wants to look at the bright side of his first season with the group. The impressive 24-year-old not only won his first race last year but also won his first pole position in Hungary.
George Russell’s Expectation For The Upcoming Season
However, George Russell admits that he did not expect to finish the last season with only one race and pole position win when he joined the Silver Arrows. It was indeed disappointing to end the season like that. After the group that had been ruling the race tracks during the turbo era. Russell feels the reason for such failure is because the collective performance of the whole team was just not there somehow.
Russell sounds hopeful about the upcoming season. As he believes that Mercedes is not a team to sit down. And will not look back to the last year’s performance with only regret. The engineers and the whole team are working on the development of the W14 cars. George Russell does not doubt that once it is done, the Mercedes team will display a performance that will prove they are a group to reckon with in the upcoming season.
Toto Wolff Is Hopeful About Hamilton And Russell’s Partnership In Future
The Mercedes boss is nothing but hopeful that Hamilton and Russell together will bring more titles back home. Wolff mentioned that the Mercedes pair complement each other nicely. Toto believes they will be able to extract the most out of the W14 cars.
Toto Wolff claims that George Russell and his seven-time champion teammate, Sir Lewis Hamilton, are currently the best pair in Formula One Motorsport. The 2023 season will be an exciting year. As the two men of the Silver Arrows will not only give their all against their rivals, Ferrari and Red Bull. But against each other as well.