George Russell not concerned about ruining his 'good relationship' with Lewis Hamilton amidst F1 title challenge

British F1 driver George Russell has said that his relationship with compatriot and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will not change even if they are fighting for the title in the 2023 season.

Russell moved to Mercedes from Williams Racing as a replacement for Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas — who moved to Alfa Romeo — for the 2022 season, teaming up with Hamilton for the first time.

In his maiden season with the Silver Arrows, the 24-year-old finished fourth in the driver's standings, two places and 35 points ahead of his seven-time world champion teammate.

While the W13 did not allow Mercedes to challenge for the title in 2022, there is hope and optimism in the team that they can go toe-to-toe with Red Bull this year. When asked if his relationship with Hamilton would change in the instance that both drivers were chasing race wins regularly, Russell said (via Motorsport):

“I mean naturally if you are fighting for 1-2s there will be a slightly different dynamic and that’s only natural. But I think the thing we have going for us is the fact that we are at very different stages of our career. It kind of feels like we are in this together, really.”

George Russell added:

“If we get to next [season] and we’ve got a car that’s capable of 1-2 finishes, we will have a huge amount of pride in thinking we have contributed together in helping the team achieve this. And then we go about our business. But we’ve got no reason to have conflict. We have got a good relationship.”

The 24-year-old believes that both drivers showed during the 2022 season that they respected each other. He also stated that the team will only be able to prosper if both of them are on the same page. He said:

“We need to give each other respect, and I think we gave each other respect [in Mexico at the first corners] as an example. We recognise the importance of that within the whole team. If our relationship starts to break up, it’s going to have an impact on the team and ultimately it’s going to go full circle and affect us as well.”

George Russell further stated that his bond with Lewis Hamilton will get stronger with time. He expressed:

“I think we can continue to build off this and if anything our relationship will probably get closer as time goes on.”

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George Russell expects Mercedes to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari in 2023

Despite enduring a difficult first season with Mercedes, George Russell remains confident that the Silver Arrows will get back to winning ways in 2023.

While the Brit acknowledged that his team got a few things wrong last year, he believes that Mercedes will bounce back and challenge for titles when the new Formula 1 campaign gets underway. He said:

“They haven’t forgotten how to build a fast race car. We just got it wrong. We got the philosophy wrong. We went down a route which turned out to be the wrong route.”

George Russell added:

“Sometimes it takes you a long time to dig yourself out of that hole. Now I feel we’ve dug ourselves out of that hole and we’re building on top of that. We are a step behind Red Bull and Ferrari and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do – but we’re definitely going to be in a much stronger position from race one.”