“Who do we want to fight here, each other or the others?” Lewis Hamilton went into the Japanese GP, ready to turn it into a battleground, fighting the Ferraris. Instead, it came close to ending in a 2016 Spanish GP-esque bloodbath for the Mercedes boys. Coming out of the weekend, Ferrari brought down the gap to a mere 20 points, and the intra-team dynamics at Mercedes couldn’t be worse. A Lewis Hamilton-George Russell pairing was always going to be explosive. It’s just that it took a season and a half to warm up, and when Hamilton unleashed his fury, he spared neither Russell nor Mercedes.

After the race, Hamilton wasn’t happy about some of Mercedes’ calls. One of them was when they asked him to give Russell DRS (when he was under threat from one of the Ferraris), which wasn’t “a good idea at all.” He said, “As drivers, it is not important where we are. What is important is that one of us finishes ahead of the Ferrari. Today, we really needed to work as a team.” He obviously wasn’t happy with Mercedes’ functioning in Suzuka. But two weeks later, he’s now become the ultimate team player.

Lewis Hamilton, the team player, and George Russell, the narcissist?

Mercedes started its season on the worst foot possible. It didn’t learn from its 2022 mistakes and ignored Hamilton’s suggestions. When it realized it was wrong, it tried to make amends to the W14. After introducing the B-spec in Monaco, there has been a slight improvement in performance. Even with that slight improvement, Mercedes is P2 in the championship. The Mercedes boys have tried to extract the maximum, and George Russell is particularly proud of himself.

In an interview with The Athletic, Russell revealed he’s returned from the summer break a changed driver and is going “back to basics.” Talking about his season and the second half, in particular, he said, “It’s just been a lot of missed opportunities and stuff we learned from. But in terms of pure performance, I think I’m performing better than ever.” If you’re wondering what the missed opportunities are, one was when he could’ve finished a comfortable second in Singapore but opted for an aggressive strategy and crashed on the last lap. Another could’ve been a possible P6 instead of a P7 in Japan had the team listened to him.

Neither Hamilton nor Russell were pleased after Suzuka. Following his criticism of Mercedes’ questionable strategy two weeks ago, Hamilton made amends. On BBC’s Chequered Flag Podcast, he was asked if the team had apologized. He said, “Firstly, no one needs to apologize. I think we win and lose as a team, and there’s no one individual, there’s no one person responsible. We’re all responsible for where we are, and for the decisions we took collectively. We stand by each other through the pain, and eventually, I hope we get to where we deserve to be, where they deserve to be. I’ll be there to support them through it all.”

Despite the sparks that flew between them at the Japanese GP, Russell and Hamilton have regrouped and are firing on all cylinders, ready to fight Ferrari.

Read More: George Russell’s Exploits Pushed Toto Wolff to “Put Lipstick on a Pig” to Add to Lewis Hamilton’s Trauma

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have one goal in mind

The Constructors’ Championship hasn’t been more important to Mercedes in the past two seasons than it is now. Therefore, the Mercedes drivers know they can’t let go now, not when they’re so close to securing P2 after starting 2023 the way they did. At the Japanese GP, The Ferraris finished fourth and sixth, while Hamilton and Russell were fifth and seventh. After a win in Singapore and outscoring Mercedes in Japan, the Scuderia has the momentum going into Qatar. Even so, Hamilton and Russell believe they can hold on to P2.

After the race in Suzuka, Hamilton said, “Our ultimate goal is to beat the Ferraris in the Constructors’ Championship. That’s all that matters. We’re not fighting for a driver’s position in the championship. Now, it’s about just getting the maximum points for the team. I think that’s what we did here.” Echoing the seven-time champion’s words, Russell said, “At the end of the day, we need to score the maximum points possible. For me personally, the Driver’s Championship is totally out of the window this season. The objective is to finish P2 with the team ahead of Ferrari.”

Playing the team game is more crucial than ever right now, and Lewis Hamilton has got that all sorted out. The question is: will George Russell play it, too?

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