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The Hybrid era ruined F1.
You're right, I know you are. I am guessing Bottas won't do anything to push things that far, but I imagine he's not going to be playing the team game anymore like he was. You can hardly blame him either, I wouldn't feel that kindly towards the team if I was him at this point.Ruslan wrote: ↑2 years agoYes, actually they could. They could certainly arrange for Russell to replace him this year.Star wrote: ↑2 years agoWell he didn't exactly hold Max up like he was supposed to yesterday did he? He also tried to nick the fastest lap point. This could get interesting with 9 races still to goDoubleFart wrote: ↑2 years ago I'd love it if Bottas were to take Lewis out, or simply sabotage Mercedes a few times. He needs to get some tips from Vinales.I mean what are they going to do, fire him?
Excuses are finally over for him.
Lucky Lewis seems to forget that its his luck he is still a championship contender with 4 to 7 wins against Max. Bahrain (tracklimits); Imola (RF to get his lap back); Baku where he had no chance on victory till Max' tire failure. And then Silverstone and Hungary...Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑2 years ago I laughed when Lewis was complaining of how lucky Max was with traffic.... at which point Max was being held up by Bottas.
Of course Bottas nearly went off the track to make it easy for Lewis to pass.
Yet Max was the lucky one according to Lewis.
I agree that Russell will for the first time have a serious team mate.. but I don't think you could say excuses are over for him. Did he ever really have many excuses..? Did he ever really need them, with piss poor team mates like the ones he's had?
Actually, I think he will. He did with the fastest lap, setting two purple sections and then easing off in the third sector (by a second?). In the end, I gather Mercedes helped him negotiate the deal with Alfa. I still suspect that includes Mercedes engines, although I have yet to see any news accounts that confirm this.Star wrote: ↑2 years agoYou're right, I know you are. I am guessing Bottas won't do anything to push things that far, but I imagine he's not going to be playing the team game anymore like he was. You can hardly blame him either, I wouldn't feel that kindly towards the team if I was him at this point.Ruslan wrote: ↑2 years agoYes, actually they could. They could certainly arrange for Russell to replace him this year.Star wrote: ↑2 years agoWell he didn't exactly hold Max up like he was supposed to yesterday did he? He also tried to nick the fastest lap point. This could get interesting with 9 races still to goDoubleFart wrote: ↑2 years ago I'd love it if Bottas were to take Lewis out, or simply sabotage Mercedes a few times. He needs to get some tips from Vinales.
For the most part he'll do as he's told but I think there will be little push backs against them. I'm not entirely convinced his 'mistake' was genuine when he let Max through last weekend.Ruslan wrote: ↑2 years agoActually, I think he will. He did with the fastest lap, setting two purple sections and then easing off in the third sector (by a second?). In the end, I gather Mercedes helped him negotiate the deal with Alfa. I still suspect that includes Mercedes engines, although I have yet to see any news accounts that confirm this.Star wrote: ↑2 years agoYou're right, I know you are. I am guessing Bottas won't do anything to push things that far, but I imagine he's not going to be playing the team game anymore like he was. You can hardly blame him either, I wouldn't feel that kindly towards the team if I was him at this point.Ruslan wrote: ↑2 years agoYes, actually they could. They could certainly arrange for Russell to replace him this year.Star wrote: ↑2 years agoWell he didn't exactly hold Max up like he was supposed to yesterday did he? He also tried to nick the fastest lap point. This could get interesting with 9 races still to goDoubleFart wrote: ↑2 years ago I'd love it if Bottas were to take Lewis out, or simply sabotage Mercedes a few times. He needs to get some tips from Vinales.
He has certainly been better watched over and taken care of by Mercedes.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he was confident that Russell would slot in seamlessly at the Brackley-based squad and help carry it forward in F1’s new rules era.
“He has been a winner in every racing category – and the past three seasons with Williams have given us a taste of what the future could hold for him in F1,” said Wolff.
“Now, it is our challenge together to help him continue learning within our environment and alongside Lewis, the greatest F1 driver of all time.
“I am confident that as their relationship grows, they will form a strong team and deliver for Mercedes on and off the track in the years ahead.
“It’s a weight off our shoulders to have our plans for 2022 clear and announced; but now, our focus returns to the final nine races of this season and putting everything into our challenge for this year’s world championships.”
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-c ... y/6662049/The arrival of George Russell at Mercedes in 2022 will represent the biggest threat Lewis Hamilton has faced from a team-mate since 2016, the last season of his rivalry with Nico Rosberg. As F1's statistical greatest driver reaches the end of his career, their dynamic could come to define perceptions of Hamilton in years to come
For only the third time since returning to Formula 1 with a works team in 2010, Mercedes will enter next season with a change in its driver line-up.
George Russell is the first driver Mercedes has actively sought to bring in since signing Lewis Hamilton as Michael Schumacher’s replacement for 2013. The only other change came for 2017, when Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement prompted Mercedes to bring in Valtteri Bottas from Williams over the winter.
It therefore makes the decision to sign Russell a significant one, and by no means a straightforward one. Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff acknowledged on Monday when Bottas’s move to Alfa Romeo was confirmed that the Finn “deserved” to stay on for 2022, so instrumental had he been in the team’s success since joining.
Russell’s arrival marks a sea change for the team - and is set to have a big impact on Hamilton, whose final chapter with Mercedes, the team with whom he has truly emerged as one of F1’s greatest of all-time, will now be largely defined by how the partnership with Russell goes.
Hamilton has made no secret of his admiration and respect for Bottas during their time together. Following the fractious nature of his final years alongside Rosberg, to have such an amicable and open working relationship was welcome relief to both Hamilton and Mercedes. Hamilton and Bottas have never had any issues, with the only moments of tension emerging when Mercedes has enforced team orders, such as in Russia in 2018 - but the gripes were never between the two drivers.
There was a desire from Hamilton to keep the partnership with Bottas going into 2022, having signed his own Mercedes extension a few months ago. Referring to the Mercedes line-up for next year back in June, Hamilton said he didn’t “necessarily see that it needs to change”. As recently as Spa, Hamilton was talking up their working relationship as being “better than ever”.
And until recently, Hamilton had hardly been raving about Russell as a possible team-mate in the future. Back when he talked up Bottas as being a “fantastic team-mate” in June after revealing his own contract talks were underway, Hamilton was asked to give “a word on George Russell”, to which he replied: “Doing what?” After it was clarified that the question was about potentially being his team-mate, Hamilton said: “Well he’s not my team-mate currently, so I don’t need to say anything else.”
But his tune was very different in Zandvoort last week, by which point the plans for Russell and Bottas were, of course, already in place. Hamilton was highly complimentary of Russell, noting his humility and his ability.
“Naturally being British I would imagine probably helps, in terms of communication,” Hamilton said of a potential partnership with the current Williams driver. “[George is] the future, he’s one of the members of the future of the sport. So I think he’s already shown incredible driving so far, and I’m sure he’s going to continue to grow.”
We know that Russell has what it takes to race and win for Mercedes. His stunning race for the team at short notice last year in Sakhir, where he overcame the team's pitstop calamity and was closing on eventual winner Sergio Perez before a late puncture dropped him back, proved as much. But as he grows and gets increasingly comfortable with life in a top team, will he become a threat to Hamilton?
It has rarely been a consideration during Bottas’s time at Mercedes. Terms such as ‘wingman’ may water down his contribution to Mercedes and how much he has pushed Hamilton at times, especially in qualifying. But it would not be unfair to say that Hamilton has been head-and-shoulders clear across the course of a season in all of their five years together. Over a full campaign, there’s only been one winner.
That in itself breeds harmony. It isn’t like the old Mercedes days, where Hamilton and Rosberg were so far clear of the rest that they only had each other to beat. Nor is this the old Lewis Hamilton, the pre-2016 defeat Hamilton, after which he has reached new heights and established himself as F1’s statistical all-time great.
Yet Russell’s arrival provides a new dynamic and a new challenge. This is a driver who wants to establish himself as a generational talent, up there with the likes of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, all of whom have already been podium regulars and had the car to display their abilities.
Russell may face a tough challenge going up against one of F1’s all-time greats within the same team, but that in itself provides a huge opportunity. Only two drivers have ever beaten Hamilton across the course of a single season: Jenson Button in 2011 and Rosberg in 2016. Adding your name to that list would be an impressive achievement.
Were Russell to achieve that, most anticipate tension arising at the team. Rosberg recently told Motorsport TV that he thought things could get “more heated” at Mercedes if Russell were to join, while Verstappen said he thought Russell would make life “more difficult” for Hamilton.
Russell will be hungry to seize the opportunity that he has worked for through his career to date, repaying the faith Mercedes first placed in him back in 2017 when he joined its junior ranks. If there is a chance to win races, then that is exactly what he will want to do.
It could also lead to a revisionism of Hamilton’s achievements. Much as Charles Leclerc’s arrival at Ferrari led many to review just how good Sebastian Vettel had been with the team, success for Russell may prompt Hamilton’s success in recent times to be viewed through a slightly different lens.
Russell is likely to be Hamilton’s final team-mate in F1. Hamilton has a deal with Mercedes running to the end of 2023, after which it would be little surprise to see him call it quits, given he has previously talked down the idea of racing into his forties like Kimi Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso. It means the fashion in which this partnership plays out will be decisive to how we come to remember Hamilton’s final years in F1.
But what is different to the Hamilton-Rosberg era is that both Mercedes and Hamilton have been through that experience before. They know how damaging it can be when team-mates fall out. They also now face a far greater external threat than before, given the new regulations coming next year and the anticipated might of Red Bull and Ferrari in particular. Everyone is that much older and wiser.
“We’ve got an amazing setting at our team, in terms of morale, in terms of our processes and how the team put their arms around the two drivers,” Hamilton said at Zandvoort. “That’s why we have harmony in our team. I think we’re so much better prepared than we were in previous years. So it doesn’t really worry me.”
The unity Mercedes has displayed in the past five seasons is undeniable, and will take a lot to break. The team has stayed strong in the face of Ferrari’s challenge in the early part of the current regulation cycle, and continues to do so against Red Bull this year. Russell’s arrival can help invigorate Mercedes against its rivals, injecting some fresh blood into the team and mark the start of the next cycle at Brackley.
That is something Wolff has always been keen to invoke at his team. “A successful sports team is not something that you can freeze,” he told Autosport in an interview over the summer. “It’s something that needs to evolve, because it needs to adapt. And it is a mixture between seniority and young enthusiasm and curiosity.”
That is exactly what Hamilton and Russell will provide next year. It is the perfect blend of experience, youth and outright pace, and arguably the strongest line-up on the grid. It gives Mercedes the best possible shot of winning next year’s titles and furthering the dynasty it has forged since 2014.
For Hamilton, while he may face a new challenge, it is one he can embrace and tackle head on. He should relish the fight against Russell, knowing he is the man who will succeed him as Mercedes’ great hope in F1, regardless of the threat he could pose.
For this is a move all about writing the next chapter of Mercedes’ F1 legacy, ensuring the post-Hamilton era can be as successful as the heyday he has been at the heart of in the last eight years
