6 replies to this topic

[mcjohnson]

Helmut Marko has commented in the press that the arrival of George Russell at Mercedes may well benefit the Red Bull team, as the eagerness of the young whippersnapper to compete with his own team-mate may well serve as a distraction to Lewis.

My opinion is that George and Lewis’s driving styles are remarkably similar and this will serve to benefit Mercedes in the simplifying the design process, with less compromises needed or favouring the design of the car in favour of one driver or another. Of course George will look to push Lewis, but I expect this to bring out the best in Lewis - precisely as we’ve seen in the latter rounds of the 2021 season with Max… I think it will form a quite formidable partnership vs the Red Bull pair, considering the Red Bull charger will clearly be designed around Max’s aggressive driving style (as opposed to Perez’s more purist style) so I expect Perez to continue to achieve 2021 levels of performance as he is gated by the car setup. What is everyone else’s thoughts on how George and Lewis will buddy up in 2022?

Edited by mcjohnson, 22 December 2021 - 21:13.

[ProSportsCars]

Tbh I dont think Russell is good enough to rival Hamilton in his very first season at Mercedes, its good enough for him if he does better than Bottas did over these years.

[Ramon69]

It may be that last  year's race flattered George a bit. I mean, he could be a threat, but he can also be just a stronger number 2 than Bottas and thats it. Sure, he was impressive in Bahrain, against Bottas who had experience in that car, but by only one race its hard to judge. I hope that they will be close, because it's more exciting!

Edited by Ramon69, 22 December 2021 - 21:25.

[PitViperRacing]

Russell will have the edge in saturdays over the year, but will get pummelled on race starts/race pace.

Just my guess

[P123]

I think there is some Merc 2022 topic already... must be a few pages back.

[prty]

Still very early so I might be wrong, but at first sight Russell seems to be extremely political and have that kind of fake PR personality. Hamilton is like that too, so if they are close to each other in terms of speed, it might get interesting for Toto

[PayasYouRace]

Sorry we don’t do vs threads. Especially given there isn’t even any head to head to talk about.