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Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s partnership at Mercedes has long been one of the most-anticipated elements of the 2022 Formula 1 season, with fans eager to see how their dynamic plays out.
But with Mercedes struggling to tame its W13 during pre-season testing, how could the team’s potential early-season game of catch-up affect the duo’s relationship?
Mercedes struggled to manage the problem of porpoising during pre-season testing with Hamilton believing the team isn’t in a position to fight for race wins in the early races with issues that are “far bigger” than those that faced the team in its pre-season test struggle one year ago.
Speaking during The Race F1 Podcast’s 2022 season preview, Scott Mitchell raised the question of how Mercedes’ potential struggles to get on top of its 2022 F1 car will affect the dynamic within its new line-up.
“What I’m curious to see depending on how Mercedes start the season is how that Hamilton/Russell dynamic plays out,” Mitchell said.
“If they are on the backfoot, and there’s stuff that they have to work on with the car to unlock the true performance of the W13, how much is that actually going to potentially help the Hamilton/Russell dynamic?
“When you’ve got a common goal, it’s in the team-mate’s interest to work with their team-mate because the better the team can do, the more harmonious that dynamic, the more joined-up everything is within the team and the quicker the team can then improve the weaknesses.
“If the team starts on the backfoot, the best thing will be for Hamilton and Russell to work as well together as possible.”
Mitchell says he expects Russell to be “nipping at Hamilton’s heels pretty quickly” so that could cause tension if the car is capable of challenging for wins and poles.
“Especially in qualifying because he’s very fast over one lap, “Mitchell said of Russell.
“That is where instant needle can develop and then you’ve got tension from the very beginning. So is this going to be a way for Mercedes to have a slightly softer introduction for that working relationship?
“Or is it going to be the worst of all worlds, where you have a slightly tricky car and the performance is not quite where it needs to be, Russell hungry to prove himself, Hamilton not wanting to be knocked off his perch within the team and tension develop that way?
“I don’t know, I don’t think it would go that way because of Hamilton’s experience, he’s got the team’s best interests as well as his own. I think he’s a slightly different person and experienced driver to when he was at odds with Nico Rosberg.
“And Russell is playing the long game, he doesn’t want to do anything to hurt himself longer term. I don’t really see that they would fall out, but it is just interesting because there are a lot of different ways that can go.
“And it might all hinge on how highly performing that car is in the first few races.”
Mark Hughes believes there’s every reason Russell has what it takes to beat Hamilton, saying he’s “absolutely” certain Russell will live up to the biggest expectations of him. He suspects the Mercedes dynamic will shift far more towards the tense Hamilton-Rosberg partnership of 2013-16 than the harmonious Hamilton-Bottas partnership of 2017-2021.
“We know how he stacks up to Valtteri Bottas, not just from that one-off race in Sakhir in 2020, but when he’s been in the car and talking to the people inside the team about his performances,” said Hughes of Russell.
“We know that he’s a stronger performer than Valtteri and we know that on occasion, Valtteri could push Lewis very hard, though not over a full season.
“I’d be amazed if there wasn’t a competitive element between them. George is the team’s future, and Lewis is the team’s past but they’re both the team’s present. That’s a very delicate dynamic to manage as well.
“The last thing the team wants to be doing is subjugating George and making him feel like he’s a wingman or a number two and not giving him equal opportunity. I don’t think that will happen, he will get absolute equal opportunity.
“I suspect it will revert to how it was when Nico Rosberg was there and the pattern that you will see, will be more like that than it was with Valtteri there.
“Who’s quicker? We don’t know. Just because one guy has won over 100 races and multiple championships. That doesn’t count for anything in the moment, that’s what happened in the past. And you’ve got another guy coming in with a vast potential and who will want to lay his own markers down and that’s just how it works.”
