12 January 2023 , 20:02
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Two former Formula 1 champions are split over whether Lewis Hamilton will be able to get the better of George Russell over the course of the coming season.
Neither of the Mercedes pair were in the title race last year as their car proved inferior to the Red Bull machine which dominated the championship. But still Russell, in his first season with the Silver Arrows, acquitted himself admirably.
Not only did he show remarkable consistency on he way to a fourth-placed finish, but he out-scored Hamilton by 35 points and finished two places above him. Only Nico Rosberg, in 2016, had managed to beat the seven-time world champion before as a Mercedes team-mate.
"What he did in Brazil, it was brilliant," said Mika Hakkinen of Russell in an interview with Top Gear. "The team has improved the car massively, so they can win races. Is he able to continue that trend?" The double champion went on to suggest he believes the 24-year-old can beat his fellow Brit again this year.
"If he can keep with that experience what he has in Mercedes, and experience what he has in Formula 1 in general, he can keep Lewis behind. It's really impressive. Because Lewis is incredible. Incredible personality, incredible driver. So if George can go for it, then I think England can look like: 'Wow, what a driver we have.'"
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The 2022 season was the first of Hamilton's career in which he failed to score even one race victory. That, in the view of 1997 title-winner Jacques Villeneuve, will spur him on to come back stronger this year and perhaps even hit a new level.
Jacques Villeneuve has predicted a brighter 2023 for Lewis Hamilton (Getty Images)"Next year I expect a lot from Lewis Hamilton, we are going to see the best Lewis yet," the Canadian wrote at the end of last season. "He ended the season without a pole position or a victory, that will have done something to him, I think."
Giving his own view on the situation, Russell appears to have sided with Villeneuve on this subject. "Nine times out of 10 if you finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton, you're probably going to be world champion," he said of his team-mate. We've all had our own difficulties. I've no doubt that he's going to be probably back to his normal level next year.
"I think he had a very difficult start to the season when things weren't really going smoothly for him, and they were probably going a bit smoother for me. That kind of swung around a little bit [in] the second half of the season, but looking back on the season as a whole, it probably balanced itself out."