The arrival of George Russell at Mercedes marked the beginning of a new era for the team. They believe that they might have found the ideal replacement for the aging Lewis Hamilton. Next thing we know, the young driver outscores his seven-time world champion teammate by 35 points in his debut season, cementing his place without a doubt.

But Russell came in with more hope—a hope to become the world champion with a team that had consecutively won 8 constructor titles. But, as fate would have it, the team couldn’t get the new guidelines right and struggled to put up a fight against Red Bull and Ferrari. Despite that, Russell recorded an astonishing 15 top-5 finishes in the first 16 rounds.

Andrew Shovlin, the trackside engineering director, believes it was George Russell’s experience at Williams that helped him get through the challenges where Lewis Hamilton had found himself stuck. As quoted by Autosport, Shovlin said, “George, having come from Williams, I think his experience there probably put him in good stead to deal with the car we were racing and trying to qualify at the start of the year.”

“I think there was an element with George where he was probably hoping the experience would be a bit more different from the one he was used to, but he was very good at just getting on with the challenge that was in front of him.”

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Going into the next season, Russell is believed to have an edge over Hamilton given his quick adaptation. But given the experience that the latter has, one can never overrule him in the competition.

Relationship between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton

Many fans were skeptical of Russell’s arrival at Mercedes. And many feared that there’d be clashes and that the chemistry that had been running high for five years in the Brackley camp might drop after the poor start to the season. But as things stand, the driver duo shares a great relationship with terrific understanding.

Shovlin provided evidence to this by saying, “The way they were working together, the way they were happy to share out the workload – the number one focus was on improving the car, not squabbling over who was going to finish fifth and who was going to finish sixth.”

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WATCH THIS STORY: Victorious Lewis Hamilton & George Russell Share Heartwarming Post-Sprint Moment at Brazilian GP

In challenging times such as last year, the drivers ensured full support for the technical team and helped speed up the development. Hamilton tried out different setups, and Russell kept bagging points. Overall, morale-wise, things look great at Mercedes, which should result in a good season for them.