Nico Rosberg sends warning to George Russell about Lewis Hamilton

Nico Rosberg is one of three drivers to have beaten Lewis Hamilton whilst being in the same team.

2016 Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg has warned George Russell not to “get too comfortable” with beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who Rosberg is expecting to “come back with a bang” after overcoming his current mental battles.

Hamilton is certainly not a happy driver so far this season, with the 38-year-old having continued to complain at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that he’s unable to “get comfortable” in the W14.

The seven-time world champion has started 2023 with consecutive fifth place finishes; however, he was beaten relatively easily by Russell at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Russell finished ahead of Hamilton despite the 103-time race winner having the better tyres, something that didn’t go unnoticed.

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After the race, Hamilton admitted that he would’ve performed better if he’d opted for Russell’s set-up, after going in the wrong direction.

“I think if I had the set-up George had,” Hamilton said, “I would have been in a better position.”

Rosberg identified after the race that his former team-mate possessed a “I got beat by my team-mate face”, with the Stevenage-born driver having been visibly disappointed.

“That was just the ‘I got beat by my team-mate’ face. That’s pretty simple,” Rosberg told Sky Sports F1.

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Russell certainly performed much better in Saudi Arabia than he did in Bahrain, with the 25-year-old having hailed his performance in Jeddah as “probably one of my strongest weekends in F1″.

Rosberg isn’t surprised to see Russell perform so well, given that the German views him a sa “future World Champion”; however, the ex-Mercedes driver isn’t discounting the fact that Hamilton is “the best o all time”.

“George is the future World Champion,” Rosberg added. “This is a difficult one for Lewis to stay in front.

“We saw it last year, what an awesome season George did and George is continuing on that form once again.

“It’s going to be a big, big challenge, but let’s not forget Lewis is the best of all time so if there’s going to be someone who can beat George then it will be Lewis.”

Rosberg is fully expecting Hamilton to bounce back from his current lack of “flow” like he always does, with that being a reason why Russell can’t afford to take his foot off the gas.

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“No, absolutely,” Rosberg said.

“It’s a little bit of a weakness that Lewis has that sometimes he’ll mentally go into this down a little bit and lose a little bit of flow.

“But,” he added, “he comes back with a bang every single time so dear George don’t get too comfortable.”