Coming into the 2022 season, Mercedes decided that after three years fighting at the back of the grid with Williams, George Russell was finally ready to race for the Silver Arrows.
Unfortunately for the Brit, he walked into Mercedes at the worst possible time, as the team got caught out by the major regulation changes that came into effect at the start of last year, leaving them with a relatively uncompetitive W13.
Despite the team’s struggled, Russell managed to pick up Mercedes’ only win of the season at the Brazilian Grand Prix as well as being a consistent top five finished.
Come the end of the season, Russell sat in fourth place in the drivers’ championship, two places ahead of his legendary teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished a season winless for the first time in his career.
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Hamilton will be looking to win a record breaking eighth world championship title before he retires and at the age of 38, he will not take too kindly to being beaten by his 24-year-old teammate.
With the 2023 season only weeks away, fans have suggested that there could be a repeat of Nico Rosberg’s relationship with Hamilton, which broke down completely when the pair battled for the title during their time together with Mercedes.
Russell has argued that his situation is slightly different however, as he and Hamilton find themselves at the complete opposite ends of their careers.
“I think Lewis and I have a good relationship,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.
“When you maybe look in the past there has been a slightly closer age gap between the two.
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“And there’s been people fighting for that top spot within the team. With Lewis and I, there is no top spot. We are both on an equal playing field.”
In Hamilton’s defence, he sacrificed the majority of the first half of his season to allow Mercedes to experiment with his setup, while Russell continued to extract the maximum out of a bouncing W13.
With the W14 set to be a much more competitive car, it will be interesting for fans to see whether Russell can continue to beat his veteran teammate, or whether Hamilton will be like a man reborn in competitive machinery.