Lewis Hamilton would have won every race like Max Verstappen without Nico Rosberg as teammate, says George Russell
Lewis Hamilton would have won as many races as Max Verstappen if he did not have a competitive teammate like Nico Rosberg. This is the view of Hamilton's teammate George Russell.
Max Verstappen won the 2022 F1 Mexican GP and broke the record for the most wins (13) in a season held by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. When questioned on the record, George Russell revealed that he felt his teammate Lewis Hamilton could have broken the record as well if he didn't have a strong teammate like Nico Rosberg on the same team. Russell said:
"We know how strong Max is and Red Bull has just done a great job. We have seen in the past that teams have been so dominant. If you look back at Lewis (Hamilton) and Nico (Rosberg), they won every race."
He continued:
"If Lewis Hamilton had a different team-mate in that era, maybe he would have won every race. have won like Max is doing now. Max is just doing really well, week after week. Red Bull is doing great. We hope to close the gap next year."
What a team 👏 https://t.co/qnVWtNyCQm
Sebastian Vettel also congratulated Max Verstappen for breaking the record and told RacingNews365:
"Well done, he's had a great season. Hopefully he has made it 16 wins by the end of the year. Anything less than that will be a disappointment."
Lewis Hamilton reflects on his P2 finish in Mexico
Lewis Hamilton started the 2022 F1 Mexican GP in P3. Hamilton got the early jump on his teammate George Russell, and was then challenging Max Verstappen in the first stint.
However, a poor tire strategy meant that the Mercedes driver could not challenge the Red Bull driver. After the race, Lewis Hamilton was positive about the race but admitted a better strategy could have helped with the chances. The Briton said:
"It was a good race for me today, although we didn't choose the right tire strategy in hindsight. Nonetheless, to be this close to Red Bull makes me very proud of my team and I'm very grateful to them for the hard work they've put in to keep on moving us forward. The race pace generally was quite good, but we were offset on tires for most of the race."
Hamilton further said:
"Maybe we should have started on the soft, but obviously we went for the medium, then took the hard to make the one stop work; it looked pretty good on the first stint, but then the Red Bull was just too quick for us - and had the better tire strategy today as well."
Padres orgullosos de sus hijos!!!🇬🇧🇲🇽
México es tu casa amigo 👏🏻 https://t.co/JhBL1xkqJ1
Lewis Hamilton has not won a race this season and with only two races left, he will be hoping to pick up at least one win to open his account for the season.