Former Grand Prix winner John Watson believes Lewis Hamilton might leave Mercedes and head for arch-rivals Ferrari or Red Bull in near future. After facing incredible resistance from his teammate George Russell in the 2022 F1 season, the seven-time world champion might make this drastic move.

Talking about this, the former Penske F1 driver shared in a report published by the Planet F1, “If he [Lewis Hamilton] finds himself being overwhelmed by Russell – let’s say Russell went on and won two or three Grand Prix this year and Lewis was unable to compete against Russell, that I would suspect would be the end of Lewis as a Grand Prix driver.”

“Or maybe he’d like to roll the dice one more time and see if there’s a seat for him at Ferrari or, very unlikely, at Red Bull,” further shared the former F1 driver. Even though the move seems very unlikely as of now, it’ll be interesting to see if the current Mercedes driver will opt for the switch.

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George Russell joined Mercedes at the end of the 2021 F1 season from Williams Racing to replace Alfa Romeo-bound Valtteri Bottas. Little did anyone know that the new Mercedes recruit will get the better of his veteran teammate in the very first season!

Lewis Hamilton faces a teammate challenge for the first time in a long time

For the first time since the 2016 F1 season, Lewis Hamilton is in a difficult position. For a seven-time world champion, not coping with his teammate must be disappointing. What started as the hunt for an eighth world title, hasn’t quite lived up to its expectations.

Currently, Lewis Hamilton trails George Russell by 27 points after the end of 18 rounds. While Hamilton is in P6 in the driver’s championship with 180 points, while Russell is in a much better position in P4 with 207 points. With four more races to go, it’ll be interesting to see if the Silver Arrows ace will be able to trump his new teammate at the Brackley-based team.

Lewis Hamilton had to face the same situation when Nico Rosberg beat him by 5 points to win the 2016 F1 world title. Ever since that year, Hamilton got the better of his teammate, who was Valtteri Bottas, every single season.

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The 37-year-old beat his teammate Bottas for straight five years to be the best man on the Silver Arrows team. As there are only a few races left for the 2022 season to conclude, it’ll be interesting to see if Lewis Hamilton can manage to keep the record going.