Lewis Hamilton vs George Russell: Who was the better driver at Mercedes from 2022 to 2024?
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell culminated their partnership at Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, and what a combination it has been. When Russell joined the team in 2022, he was going to a squad that had become the house of the 7x world champion. The team had just won its 8th world championship, and there was a keen interest in how he would fare.
As it turned out, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had a three-year partnership, which was intense at times but always respectful. Now that the partnership has come to an end, who do we think was the better of the two drivers? Let's take a look.
Lewis Hamilton vs George Russell
Qualifying
(29-39)
In qualifying, George Russell has a definitive edge over Lewis over three years. The younger driver leads the head-to-head between the two 39-29 in his favor.
Races
(26-29)
To calculate the head-to-head in races, we've excluded the races where either of the two drivers did not finish. Once we've done that, in races it is much closer with George Russell narrowly leading Lewis Hamilton 29-26 over the three years. The gap between the two drivers, as we've seen even this season as well, tends to get narrowed down once we look at races, and this is a perfect example of that.
Race wins
(2-3)
In terms of race wins, Russell holds the edge once again over Hamilton. In 2022, Russell won the race in Brazil while Hamilton couldn't win anything that season. In 2023, neither of the two drivers won a race all year. In 2024, both picked up a couple of wins. Hamilton won the race in Spa and Silverstone, while Russell won the race in Austria and Las Vegas.
Pole
(1-5)
This is probably the part where the gap between the two drivers is quite big as George Russell's one-lap prowess shines through. Russell got one pole position in 2022. Hamilton then got one pole position in 2023. In 2024, however, while Russell has been splendid and picked up four pole positions, Hamilton hasn't picked up even a single one.
Podium
(20-14)
Just like Russell's one-lap prowess shined through in pole position head-to-head, Hamilton's ability to just be the ruthlessly brilliant racer has helped him clinch as many as 20 podiums while George only has 14.
Points
(697-695)
Finally, looking at points scored by the two, Hamilton pipped Russell on the last lap of the last race of the 2024 F1 season to end up outscoring him. The two drivers were separated by just two points, but Hamilton will be hoping to take these bragging rights home as he moves to Ferrari.
Conclusion
When we try to reach a definitive conclusion, it's hard to pick either way. On one side you have Russell, who outscored Hamilton twice in three seasons. On the other side, you have the veteran outscoring his younger teammate in the overall tally.
However, there's a trend that we can quite clearly see here. Russell was spectacular in qualifying, and that gap has grown over three years. The gap in the races, however, is much less, and one of the reasons behind it is Lewis Hamilton's ability as a racer to continue to chip away all weekend.
Both drivers had different strengths and weaknesses, and it's just too hard to say which one of the two was better. At this point, we leave the final decision to our readers. Who do you think has been better? Let us know in the comments section.