Lewis Hamilton impact clear as George Russell speaks his mind | F1 | Sport
George Russell has labelled former team-mate Lewis Hamilton “a big threat” in the title race after his first win as a Ferrari driver. The seven-time world champions finally secured his long-awaited maiden victory in red last time out at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and is now only 41 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Russell is a further nine points back and the fact the two Mercedes drivers have been split points at the stridest both Hamilton and his Ferrari team have made so far this year. The Scuderia are set to debut their first engine upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend and, perhaps with that in mind, Russell admitted on Thursday that Mercedes are vulnerable.
He told reporters: “For sure, [Hamilton] is a big threat, Ferrari are a huge threat. Kimi is still very much the driver out front and is performing really incredibly and consistently, but Ferrari feel like they’re coming and Lewis is at the forefront of that.”
Russell knows Hamilton well, having been his team-mate for three seasons. And even though it may come at the cost of his own personal ambitions, he admitted that he is pleased to see Hamilton enjoying some success once again.
He said: “It’s great to see Lewis back doing what he does best, and I think that’s also just such an example of how challenging Formula 1 is, because the cars, the tyres, the power units are so complex. Everything needs to click and, if one thing isn’t clicking, you can’t get the most out of yourself.
“People were writing him off last year, or even the year we were team-mates in ’24. ‘Is he too old? Is he this? Is he that?’. And then he goes and he’s been smashing it for the last four or five races. It just shows that you don’t forget how to drive overnight. You need yourself, your team, the setup, the understanding of the tyres, everything just to click. And when it clicks, you fly, and it’s beautiful. And that’s where he is at the moment.”
A huge factor in Hamilton’s improvement is how much more settled with the team he is, having requested significant changes to his engineering staff over the winter. He struggled to strike a rapport with race engineer Riccardo Adami last year and was granted his wish of a change.
He worked with Carlo Santi in pre-season and for the first few rounds of the year, in what was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. But the two have worked well together so far and Santi was the one who went to the podium with Hamilton in Barcelona as Ferrari celebrated their first victory since 2024.
And it seems there has been a change of plan at Maranello with Santi now in the role for longer than was originally anticipated. A spokesperson for the Scuderia said: “Carlo and Lewis are working pretty well together and there’s no plan to replace him.”
