George Russell says the departure of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes is such an enormous change that it’s going to “spark numerous motivation” because the staff enters a brand new period.
Hamilton accomplished his remaining race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, forward of his transfer to Ferrari in 2025. The swap means Mercedes won’t have Hamilton as a part of its line-up for the primary time since 2012, when it ran Michael Schumacher alongside Nico Rosberg. Russell believes the departure serves as a reminder of what has been achieved, but additionally provides a contemporary begin.
“We had a do on Thursday night time [in Abu Dhabi] altogether, wanting again on a few of his recollections, and I feel as painful as these three years have been, I feel seeing all of those recollections as nicely reminds the staff that we are able to do it,” Russell stated. “We now have the identical staff as was there throughout Lewis’s glory years.
“And Lewis even stated after the debrief, everybody had their head of their arms after what occurred in qualifying, however he stated ‘Look, let’s stand tall and never overlook of all these pole positions and wins that we’ve had collectively’. I feel it’s been a really good strategy to end this season.
“It has been a troublesome three years, and I feel this alteration for everybody is absolutely going to spark numerous motivation for everybody. And I feel generally change is absolutely a lot wanted.”
Russell stated his personal private classes realized from Hamilton are much less primarily based on his driving skills and extra the best way the seven-time world champion has carried himself as one in every of Method 1’s main figures.
“To be sincere, simply seeing first hand what a task mannequin he’s,” Russell stated. “I acknowledge from Lewis that we’ve all obtained this platform, and we have now to make use of it accurately. That’s turn into much more obvious to me when, with my younger niece and nephews watching TikTok and YouTube and Netflix. I spend a little bit of time with Toto [Wolff]’s son, he and his associates see Netflix and all of these things.
“And the way you take care of the victories, the way you take care of the losses, you encourage the younger children, and… after I look again to that photograph I had of Lewis and I after I was a child, I appeared as much as him, the identical manner as all these children look as much as us. I feel that’s in all probability been the most important life lesson that I’ve realized from him, that generally, even if you wish to actually categorical one thing, there’s tons of of hundreds of thousands of individuals watching, and the best way do you it can be crucial.”
