"He is the villain you portrayed Norris to be": Fans react to George Russell claiming he beat Lewis Hamilton in his first year at Mercedes
F1 fans recently reacted to George Russell's comments about how he beat Lewis Hamilton in his first season at Mercedes. This comment came while discussing Hamilton's replacement in 2025, Kimi Antonelli.
Russell made his debut in Mercedes in 2022, after Lewis Hamilton's intense title battle with Max Verstappen in 2021. His first year in a top-tier team was great since he was able to score more points than the seven-time world champion and also bag his first race win in Brazil, while Hamilton went winless in 2022.
Fast forward to 2024, George Russell was asked about Lewis Hamilton's replacement, Kimi Antonelli, who will drive for Mercedes in 2025. He told Sky Sports that Antonelli could add pressure on him since he wouldn't have gotten the seat from Toto Wolff if he was not talented enough.
He then started talking about how he received his seat in Mercedes and claimed that he beat Lewis Hamilton in the first year of them being teammates.
"If you're in a top tier seat, if he wouldn't be putting me under pressure I dont think Toto would have put him in that role in the first place. I think that's the same as when I came up against Lewis in my first year. Lewis came off the back of winning 6 years out of 7 in a row with the team. Who maybe would've thought that a young kid coming from Williams would beat Lewis Hamilton in his first year as his teammate," Russell said.
Many F1 fans were unimpressed with how George Russell claimed he defeated Hamilton. One fan said that the British driver is the actual 'villain' that many fans were portraying Lando Norris to be when he was fighting Max Verstappen for the championship this year.
Another quoted Max Verstappen's comment about losing respect for George Russell. The Red Bull driver said this after he saw Russell forcing the race stewards to give him a penalty after the Qatar GP qualifying.
"He is the villain you portrayed Norris to be. I'm starting to disliking him," one fan wrote.
"As Max said: this guy lost all of my respect," another added.
"There is confidence, then there is cocky," someone mentioned.
A few also discussed how in 2022, Lewis Hamilton experimented on various setups throughout the season in order to improve the car. At the time, Mercedes suffered from porpoising, an aerodynamic phenomenon most F1 cars faced due to new technical regulations.
"Hamilton spent most of the first year trying to fix the car. And Russell got stupidly luckily…" one follower wrote.
"Who do you think you are George. Lewis has been doing all the testing and experimenting all year. You have been Toto’s favorite. Let’s see how you get on without Lewis. Hope Kimi trounces you next year. Way too cocky IMO," a fan spewed.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton's head-to-head statistics in the 2022 F1 season
After driving for Williams for three years, George Russell finally received the golden chance to get into Mercedes and drive in a top team.
Here is how he fared against the seven-time world champion in his first season at the Brackley-based team-
George Russell secured P4 in the drivers' championship table with 275 points, while Lewis Hamilton secured P6 with 240 points. Russell managed to win a race in 2022 in Brazil, while Hamilton went through the year without a win. In terms of pole positions, Russell bagged one of them, while Hamilton never qualified for the top spot. Russell secured eight podiums, while Hamilton stood on nine.
Speaking of head-to-head performances, Lewis Hamilton had the upper edge in qualifying while Russell was better in races. Hamilton was 13-9 ahead in qualifying, while Russell 12-10 ahead in the Grand Prix.