Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher has praised new Mercedes driver George Russell claiming that the 24-year-old can beat teammate Lewis Hamilton in the 2022 F1 season. Russell joins Mercedes after leaving Williams after three years. He replaces Valtteri Bottas, who moved to Alfa Romeo this season.

Russell was the replacement for Hamilton in 2020 at the Sakhir Grand Prix when Hamilton was contracted with the coronavirus. This time around, he will team up with his idol as Mercedes looks to outpower Red Bull on all fronts.

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher believes that the youngster has the skillset to outperform the 7-time World Champion in the newly launched W13 car. Schumacher also spoke about the age difference between the two drivers and a change of guard at Mercedes for the future.

During an interview with Speedweek, he said, “I thought it was interesting how gentle the two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, were with each other [at the launch]. The tone was quite different when George replaced Lewis in Bahrain 2020 and drove alongside Valtteri Bottas. But I’m convinced that internally it looks different, and I already believe he can beat Lewis from the start.”

Earlier, Bottas admitted that Russell will face an uphill battle to beat Hamilton in the same car. The Finn spent 5 years at Mercedes with Hamilton with 10 race wins and 67 podiums. He now moves to Alfa Romeo teaming up with debutant Guanyu Zhou. Bottas spoke about his partnership with Hamilton of 5 years and the challenges with it. Bottas failed to win a World Championship, with high hopes of repeating predecessor Nico Rosberg’s famous win.

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Will George Russell get the ground running at Mercedes?

There are high levels of optimism in the Mercedes camp concerning Russell’s talent. Russell achieved his first F1 podium with Williams at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa. He has also managed to outqualify his former teammate Nicholas Latifi in every race last season.

The Englishman’s P2 in qualifying at Spa sent shock waves around the racing world. His impressive record in qualifying has not matched up in terms of race results. In the W11, Russell was close to winning his first race, but a punctured tire forced him to finish P9.

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