Experience is the only prophecy of a wise man. Toto Wolff and Mercedes saw an extremely capable driver and future world champion in George Russell. The 25-year-old seems to be living up to his expectations and is gearing up to take the fight to Lewis Hamilton. As the dynamic between the two Mercedes drivers changes, it will be interesting to see if the seven-time-world champion is able to fend off the attack.

Mercedes’ signed George Russell last year going against the will of Lewis Hamilton, who wanted to keep Valtteri Bottas as his teammate. George Russell proved himself at Williams and it was time for him to move to a bigger team. Mercedes capitalized on the opportunity before anyone else. The 25-year-old was expected to find his feet at the team whilst Lewis Hamilton took the charge. However, Russell managed to outperform the seven-time world champion, finishing 35 points ahead of Hamilton.

George Russell continued his form from last year into this year. He has out-qualified Lewis Hamilton in all three races so far. Had Russell not retired from the Australian GP, he very well might’ve been ahead of Hamilton in the driver’s championship. The host of Inside the Piranha Club podcast believes the relationship between the duo is changing. The 25-year-old has now settled at the team and is banging on Hamilton’s door. Russell sees himself on par with the 38-year-old now and is ready to become the no.1 driver if Hamilton slips.

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Inside The Piranha Club podcast co-host, Ben Hunt said, “I sense a change in the relationship between the two. When George came in, he was trying to find his feet. He was allowed that to happen sort of under the radar because we were all focused on the porpoising and the Mercedes was so bad. And it obviously fell upon Lewis, trying all of these different tactics to try and get this porpoising problem and sort of resolve it. All the while George was becoming more and more confident and more settled.”

H added, “And I think he’s coming to this year, totally more confident. I think we’re seeing him now question a few things and sort of answering back to Lewis. Now almost sees himself on a level par with Lewis”

The rivalry between the Mercedes teammates is going to get interesting as the season goes on. The Australian GP told us that Hamilton is getting the hang of the W14 now and is on par with George Russell. However, there’s no denying the fact that Red Bull seems out of reach for anyone and George Russell believes the Austrian team still has an ace up its sleeve.

What does George Russell make of Red Bull’s pace?

Red Bull has won every single race this season till now. Nobody even came close to challenging the Austrian team for pace. However, George Russell suggests this is not the true pace of Red Bull and that they are hiding even more performance under their sleeve. The Briton explained that realistically, Red Bull is about 7 tenths faster than anyone.

According to express.co.uk, George Russell said, ” For sure they’re holding back. They’re almost embarrassed to show their full potential because the faster they seem globally the more the sport is going to try to hold them back somehow. Realistically, they probably have a seven-tenths advantage over the rest of the field. I don’t know what the pace difference looks like at the moment but Max has got no reason to be pushing and nor has Red Bull.”

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Do you think George Russell is faster than Lewis Hamilton on outright raw pace?