George Russell gets Lewis Hamilton stat wrong as he boasts about beating former Mercedes teammate

George Russell believes he’s already driven at the level of a world champion in Formula 1. Now he just needs the car to prove it.

In 2021, the year before Russell joined Mercedes, the Silver Arrows won the constructors’ championship for the eighth consecutive year. Lewis Hamilton missed out on the drivers’ title by just eight points.

But Mercedes couldn’t sustain their dominance into the ground-effect era. In fact, they’ve only won five of the last 69 Grands Prix, and they went a whole year without victory in 2023.

Still, Russell will feel he maximised the car’s potential last season. He finished sixth in the championship with 245 points after victories in Austria and Las Vegas.

That put him 22 points ahead of Hamilton, who struggled in his final season before joining Ferrari. An alarming gulf opened up in qualifying, with Russell winning the head-to-head 19-5.

Mercedes will treat their drivers equally at the outset in 2025, but Russell is expected to be the de facto no. 1. He’s started 128 races, while new signing Kimi Antonelli will be making his debut in Australia.

George Russell is wrong about Lewis Hamilton race head-to-head at Mercedes

Speaking to BBC Sport, Russell underlined the challenge he faced when graduating from Williams to Mercedes. Hamilton had already become the most successful driver ever.

But he declared himself the victor of the intra-team duel at Brackley and suggested his performances deserved better. In another era, beating Hamilton would mean winning the title.

One of the stats Russell used to justify his argument wasn’t quite right, though. While he did beat Hamilton in qualifying – 39-29 overall – they actually finished level in the race-day head-to-head at 34-34.

The 40-year-old suggested he wasn’t ‘fast anymore’ at the end of last season, at a loss to explain his poor qualifying showings. But his racecraft remains masterful, as evidenced by his driver-of-the-day-winning charge from 10th to second in Vegas.

“The results speak for themselves,” Russell said. “And I don’t have anything I need to prove or show. I am proud of the results I’ve achieved going up against somebody like Lewis.

“At the end of 2021, statistically and in terms of perception, Lewis was the greatest of all time. And I’ve had three years against the greatest of all time, and I finished ahead of him two out of the three years I had as team-mates. And finished ahead more times in ‘quali’ and more times in the race.

“If this was a different time or a different era, if you finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton, you’re a world champion.”

Nico Rosberg says Lewis Hamilton symbolically won Mercedes battle in one George Russell moment

Jolyon Palmer has called Russell underrated, and perhaps the three-time Grand Prix winner feels he deserves more respect. Much of the focus has been on Hamilton’s issues rather than the impressive performances from his compatriot.

Now he has a chance to definitively move out of the seven-time champion’s shadow. Mercedes are behind McLaren on the evidence of testing, but appear a close match for Ferrari and Red Bull.

Reflecting on the Russell vs Hamilton years, it’s somewhat fitting that they finished level in the races. Their ‘battle’ effectively came down to the last lap in Abu Dhabi.

By overtaking car number 63, Hamilton edged ahead of Russell for overall points. Nico Rosberg says he can claim the bragging rights after the fine move around the outside.