George Russell is partnering with 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for the 2022 season. He’s replacing Valtteri Bottas in the team who was with the team since 2017. Bottas and Hamilton helped Mercedes win every constructor’s championship since 2017 and were excellent teammates.

But many believe that there might be fireworks on the German team in the 2022 season. Many expect that George Russell will push Hamilton and might not be as willing to let his teammate pass as Bottas. In light of this, 2-time world champion Mika Hakkinen believes Hamilton might not get the same support from George as he used to get from Valtteri.

Hakkinen believes Lewis Hamilton will face competition from Russell in 2022

Although both Hamilton and Bottas competed against each other, the Finnish driver played second fiddle on most occasions. According to the former world champion, Russell will drive to impress everyone at Mercedes this season. This might hamper Hamilton as he would get tougher competition from the young British driver. Hakkinen mentioned that Russell’s eagerness to impress might irritate the 7-time world champion.

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As reported by Express.co.uk, Hakkinen has said, “I believe, and I know from my experience, that Lewis is relatively sensitive. He is a sensitive person. When Valtteri was Lewis’ teammate, the teamwork was perfect. Now, the support he’s going to get from Russell… The teamwork could be lost. That’s where Lewis can become irritated,”.

But George Russell mentioned he is approaching the 2022 season differently. He mentioned that being the teammate of Lewis is a win-win situation for him.

“Lewis has nothing to prove. He is statistically the greatest driver of all time. I think he wants me to succeed, and he truly wants to help me. It’s incredibly exciting that I find myself in a win-win scenario. You’re going up against the greatest of all time who has beaten everybody. I can only learn from him,” said Russell.

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Although Russell was nowhere quick as Hamilton in Bahrain Qualifying, we can expect how much closer battle between them as the younger driver gets used to a Mercedes car. It would be interesting from Mercedes‘s point of view too on how they manage both drivers. But before they can get into it, there might be some issues with their car that they would have to solve as quickly as possible.