George Russell has refuted 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard’s claim that Lewis Hamilton is already “mentally” a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton is looking to come out ahead at Mercedes after announcing before the start of the 2024 F1 campaign that he would be a Ferrari driver from next year, but his efforts to draft a positive final deal at Mercedes have so far failed to bear fruit.
Russell established his superiority over team-mate Hamilton, a seven-time world champion with Mercedes, with a 3-0 lead in qualifying and a 2-0 lead in the race, with neither Mercedes driver having taken the chequered flag last time out in Australia. .
But it was on the last drive in Saudi Arabia that Coulthard claimed Hamilton gave the impression of mind control at Mercedes.
“He’s just comfortable with this car,” Coulthard told Channel 4.
“And you can say, you know, George is fine-tuning the lap time at the moment and Lewis is behind.
“What we do know is that if he discovers a performance window, then we’ll know he’s going to deliver on his promises.
“But at the moment it looks like his decision is to go to Ferrari, mentally he’s already there.
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However, Russell pointed out that Coulthard was absolutely wrong in that assessment, and that Hamilton was fully determined to make his final season at Mercedes a success.
“Since Lewis’ announcement, I think he’s been incredibly professional with the team and the appointments with everyone inside Mercedes seem like nothing has changed,” Russell said, according to Nextgen-Auto.
“I read what David said, that his brain was already somewhere else, but that’s not the case.
“And the team was wonderful, too. We were given equivalent opportunities. That’s how it’s been from the beginning.
“And every time innovations are made in the automobile, it affects any one of us at the same time, while other groups make one car before the other.
“So the progression remains the same in our country and everyone is just as worried as before.
“Lewis performed well last year with us.
It was a rocky start for Mercedes in F1 2024 overall, as Russell’s fifth-place finish in the opening race in Bahrain was the team’s most productive result so far.
Mercedes is fourth in the constructors’ championship, already ahead of Red Bull by 71 points.
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