The most important relationship in Formula 1 isn’t just between a driver and his car, but also with his teammate. Whether it’s Rubens Barrichello and Valtteri Bottas playing the roles of perfect wingmen or Nico Rosberg and Alain Prost denying Brazilian fans glory, teammate rivalries are a double-edged that can turn sour quickly. Just ask Lewis Hamilton, who’s had his fair share of run-ins with teammates over his decorated career. First, it was Fernando Alonso, then it was Rosberg, but Lewis Hamilton has triumphed over them all.

George Russell was a promising candidate to join the club after beating Hamilton in the driver’s standings last year. But with Hamilton battling it out for second with Perez, Russell finds the seven-time champion out of reach from his lowly eighth spot. Although the 2019 Rookie has blossomed into a feisty driver, his irritation with Hamilton at the Brazilian GP was quickly shut down by F1 Journalist and Ex Ferrari boss, Peter Windsor.

George Russell’s Brazilian GP ends in heart-break after voicing frustration with Lewis Hamilton

The W14 had delivered on the new floor update’s promise at the US GP as well as Mexico, but the Brackley outfit was left puzzled with how their Brazilian weekend had unfolded. The Mercedes duo was plagued with tire management woes throughout the weekend, with the first crack in their armor appearing during the Sprint race. Hamilton began to drop like a stone, and his tires were in visibly poor condition, with heavy graining on the rear left. Although George Russell finished fourth during the sprint, Sunday’s race would end in heartbreak.

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Russell was playing the team game alongside Hamilton but was losing patience behind the seven-time champion, as Sergio Perez had cleared both of them due to Hamilton’s conservative pace. However, the No.44 driver’s experience may have aided him in avoiding a similar fate to Russell.

Although Russell was furious with Hamilton for not playing the team game, it may have been unwarranted, according to Peter Windsor, “I think that’s what we saw with George Russell today who went through the tires really quickly, and making the point quite early in the race, and gotta say here Mercedes were nowhere today, but he was managing the tires he wasn’t gonna push too hard and then getting a bit irritable on the radio about Lewis’ pace and are they trying to help one another or are they racing for themselves, lots of chat like this going on with George.”

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Peter Windsor alluded to George Russell’s driving style that may have cost him in the long run. Russell was ‘leaning on the car’ a lot more than Hamilton was, which Windsor presumed was because the senior driver at Mercedes was well aware of the issues with the car that had cost him dearly on Saturday, choosing to do most of his braking in a straight line before turning into the corner – ultimately putting less stress on the tires.

Toto Wolff and Co. are left scratching their heads over unpredictable challenger

Whilst the race ended with a DNF for Russell after Mercedes concluded his car was not safe to continue with an engine issue, Hamilton got some consolation points for finishing eighth. A result Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, has called this result the worst he’s witnessed in decades!

The sprint races just don’t seem to work well for Mercedes. Their issues were clear on Saturday, and their set-up once again cost them heavily on Sunday. It was the polar opposite of their weekend in Qatar when their set-up was too dialed into the ground, leading to disqualification for Hamilton. The W14 just doesn’t seem to work out for Mercedes, even prompting Hamilton to voice his frustration with the 2023 challenger.

Toto Wolff was also vocal on the curse that the sprint format has placed on the Brackley outfit, quoted by RacingNews365, “I think Sprint weekends haven’t been our strengths.” The once dominant constructors have found themselves in an unfamiliar spot, plagued with reliability and tire management woes. Wolff added, “We are working ourselves out of problems on most weekends. But swings are not on from being almost quickest [in Mexico] to being eighth. For me personally, the worst weekend in 13 years.” 

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While Mercedes are clear in the constructor’s standings of every team but Red Bull, two teams are posing a real threat after the weekend in Interlagos. Both McLaren and Aston Martin look to have flipped the script on Ferrari and Mercedes, and only time will tell if the Brackley outfit can keep the mid-field at bay!