Mercedes Boss Advised to Baby the “Weaker Child” in Lewis Hamilton & George Russell F1 Duo

As George Russell arrived in the Mercedes camp in 2022, Mercedes expected things to be in favor of Lewis Hamilton, who was preparing to chase the eighth record championship. However, the W13’s underwhelming performance altered the dynamics completely, with George Russell leading the pack and establishing himself as an equal to his teammate and countrymate.

This has now presented a dilemma to Mercedes’s boss, Toto Wolff: which driver would the team help more? And while challenges like this are less likely to occur at Red Bull, given Max Verstappen’s undisputed dominance over Sergio Perez, the same approach can’t be applied at Brackley, according to former F1 driver Emanuele Pirro.

According to the Crash, Pirro suggested a common approach to Toto Wolff and new Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur in managing their drivers, saying, “At Red Bull, the distribution of roles between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez is clear. Max is the stronger driver. But when you have two equal drivers, like Hamilton and Russell at Mercedes or Leclerc and Sainz at Ferrari, the team boss then has to support the driver who has more difficulties. Like parents helping a weaker child.”

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Hamilton and George Russell have enjoyed a fairly good relationship so far. But though they have dealt well with the challenges, things are expected to spice up this year as the heat has already been reported by Toto himself.

George Russell speaks on the relationship with Lewis Hamilton

George Russell regards Lewis Hamilton as a senior and holds a lot of respect for him. He went so far as to say that a year of experience with Lewis was equivalent to three years of experience at Williams.

He said, “You can’t buy experience, so having that chance to be in the garage next to him and sit opposite him in the engineer’s office is probably helping me gain a few years of experience. It is maybe making up for my three years where I was trying to lead the team at Williams when I actually had very little experience in that regard.”

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Moreover, Russell understands the issues that might come up with Hamilton if they are competing at the front of the pack. So, given their compatibility in such trying times for the team as 2022, Toto Wolff shouldn’t be too concerned about handling the two Brits.