Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

George Russell ‘will soon get on Lewis Hamilton’s nerves’, claims ex-F1 driver Gerhard Berger

Russell has out-performed Hamilton in the first four races of the 2022 season

Harry Latham-Coyle
Monday 02 May 2022 10:51 BST
Comments
<p>George Russell (left) joined Mercedes from Williams ahead of this season </p>

George Russell (left) joined Mercedes from Williams ahead of this season

George Russell will “soon get on the nerves” of Lewis Hamilton if he continues to out-peform his Mercedes teammate, Gerhard Berger has claimed.

Russell has achieved a top-five finish in each of the first four races of the 2022 Formula 1 season, his first as a contracted Mercedes driver after an off-season move from Williams.

The 24-year-old leads new teammate Hamilton by 21 points with both drivers struggling to battle performance problems with the new W13 car.

While Russell has described Hamilton’s attitude as “inspiring”, and the seven-time world champion publicly expressing his admiration of his compatriot’s early Mercedes showings, Berger thinks that Russell’s success may eventually begin to rankle Hamilton.

“It will soon get on Lewis’ nerves,” Berger, who competed in 14 F1 seasons in the 1980s and 1990s, predicted to Speedweek.

“Russell was one of the outstanding drivers at Imola. Like Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.”

Hamilton had hoped to again contend for a record eighth world title this year but has already declared his hopes over with Red Bull and Ferrari appearing to be far ahead of Mercedes.

The German outfit have won the Constructors’ Championship every year since 2014, a stranglehold on the teams’ prize that appears set to end.

“Mercedes clearly has quite complex problems with their car,” Mika Hakkinen, the 1998 and 1999 world champion, noted for Unibet after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. “It seems amazing to say it, but the World Championships are already looking out of reach.

“For the first time in 10 years neither Mercedes made it through to Q3 qualifying [at Imola], which is hard to believe.

“Clearly the car design is not working in several areas. To see Lewis Hamilton being lapped by Max Verstappen after 41 laps shows what a difficult time he and the team are having.

“They understand the key problems, but time is running out to find solutions. This is the problem in F1 – the World Championship does not wait for you, the races keep coming and there is so little time to sort major problems out.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in