Jacques Villeneuve thinks George Russell gave Lewis Hamilton a ‘wake-up call’ after joining Mercedes and outperformed the seven-time F1 champion by ‘a lot’ in 2023.
The Silver Arrows formed an all-British line-up in 2022 when Russell arrived from Williams to replace Valtteri Bottas. Team principal Toto Wolff sought a change to the Mercedes fold after five years as Red Bull ended their dominance. Bottas was seldom able to challenge regularly.
Bottas had his best years in 2019 and 2020 when he finished second in the table to Hamilton as Mercedes teammates. But the 34-year-old ended the terms 87 and even 124 points away. He then finished 2021 in third, facing a 161.5 gap to Hamilton and 169.5 to Max Verstappen.
Russell has Mercedes’ only win since Hamilton’s 2021 Saudi Arabian GP victory
It took Russell one year to finish a season ahead of Hamilton in the drivers’ championship. It marked only the second time since 2011 that the 39-year-old finished any season behind his teammate. Jenson Button beat him at McLaren in 2011 and Nico Rosberg won the 2016 title.
Russell also secured Mercedes’ only win since Hamilton topped the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP at the 2022 Sao Paulo GP. The 26-year-old won the Sprint to start from pole position and he fended off Hamilton’s pursuit as Russell sealed his first Grand Prix victory by 1.529 seconds.
Villeneuve thinks Hamilton got ‘really comfortable’ with Bottas as his teammate
Winning in Brazil helped Russell to finish fourth in the 2022 drivers’ championship as the top Mercedes driver. Hamilton could only secure sixth place with 35 fewer points than Russell in their first year as teammates. But Hamilton won out in 2023 with P3 over Russell in only P8.
Yet despite Hamilton scoring 234 points to Russell’s 175 last year, 1997 F1 drivers’ champion Villeneuve claims it was the latter of the Mercedes pair who drove ‘a lot better’ last year. He also claims Russell gave the Grand Prix wins, pole and podium record holder a ‘wake-up call’.
“He got really comfortable with Bottas and he had a little bit of a wake-up call in 2022 when George joined,” Villeneuve told GP Fans. “George just had that young energy, wanting to destroy the world, and he did a lot better last year.”
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