George Russell says the departure of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes is such an enormous change that it’s going to “spark plenty of motivation” because the crew enters a brand new period.
Hamilton accomplished his ultimate race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, forward of his transfer to Ferrari in 2025. The swap means Mercedes is not going to 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 in addition presents a contemporary begin.
“We had a do on Thursday evening [in Abu Dhabi] altogether, wanting again on a few of his reminiscences, and I feel as painful as these three years have been, I feel seeing all of those reminiscences as properly reminds the crew that we are able to do it,” Russell stated. “We now have the identical crew as was there throughout Lewis’s glory years.
“And Lewis even stated after the debrief, everybody had their head of their palms 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 solution to end this season.
“It has been a tricky three years, and I feel this transformation for everybody is actually going to spark plenty of motivation for everybody. And I feel generally change is actually a lot wanted.”
Russell stated his personal private classes realized from Hamilton are much less based mostly on his driving talents and extra the best way the seven-time world champion has carried himself as one in all Formulation 1’s main figures.
“To be sincere, simply seeing first hand what a job mannequin he’s,” Russell stated. “I acknowledge from Lewis that we’ve all acquired this platform, and we’ve got 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 pals see Netflix and all of these items.
“And the way you cope with the victories, the way you cope with the losses, you encourage the younger youngsters, and… after I look again to that picture I had of Lewis and I after I was a child, I seemed as much as him, the identical means as all these youngsters look as much as us. I feel that’s most likely been the largest 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’s important.”
