George Russell Admits Beating Lewis Hamilton Not “Good Enough” as He Has a Bigger Fish To Fry: “I’m Not Going To Celebrate…”

George Russell had a phenomenal 2022 F1 season. The new Mercedes recruit not only fetched his team a race win, but he also beat Lewis Hamilton in the WDC. However, that was not all for the young Briton as he looks to set out to fry bigger fish in 2023.

Talking to Sky Sports, Russell said, “Obviously, I would take the positives away from the season, but I’m not going to celebrate finishing P4 in the championship.”

He added, “But to the standards this team set, some standards I set myself… it’s not good enough.”

“The fact is, we’re all here to win and we’re here to win world championships. So we’ve not done a perfect job this season,” further stated the Briton on Mercedes’ overall performance this season as they finished behind Red Bull and Ferrari.

READ MORE: George Russell Reveals How “Failure” Mentality Set Him up to Achieve the Impossible Against Mercedes F1 Legend Lewis Hamilton

Russell finished the season in P4 with 275 points. He beat his veteran teammate Lewis Hamilton by 35 points who ended his 2022 season in P6, behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

George Russell is happy with his achievements in 2022

George Russell has been the better driver for Mercedes this season. The man who gave the Brackley-based team their first and only win of the 2022 season, also won a sprint race for them in Brazil.

Russell, who was always the better driver at Williams, was finally paired with F1’s great Lewis Hamilton this year. Coming into the team and beating the seven-time world champion is not an easy feat. Even though he lost to the former McLaren man on some occasions, the 24-year-old is still happy with what he achieved this year.

Talking to reporters, Russell said, “I was sort of used to a certain level of outscoring them [past team-mates], or whatever you want to call it, but if it’s 55/45 in my favor, even if I lose 45% of the time, that’s going to still be incredibly successful against Lewis [Hamilton].”

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This is the third time Lewis Hamilton got defeated by a teammate in the same machinery in his career. Firstly, it was by Jenson Button in 2011, then Nico Rosberg in 2016, and finally George Russell in 2022. But, will Hamilton be able to get back his throne back on the German team in 2023?