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George Russell has had a great start in Mercedes. The young driver currently leads his illustrious teammate Lewis Hamilton by 21 points and has beaten him in three of the first four races.
Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton's former teammate of four years, has a word of advice for George Russell. The German feels that Russell needs to show Lewis that he is not a pushover and needs to stay firm against him.
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“Especially against someone as great as Lewis it’s important for George to not show he’s just a walkover, to get the elbows out in a measured way right from the get-go and show Lewis ‘you need to respect me as well’. That’s a very important sign for George to get going right at the beginning in this relationship because it sets a precedent and it’s such a fine line how far you push that.
“It will be good to see how George manages that in the next couple of races, especially against Lewis once they start going wheel-to-wheel at some point.”
George Russell's stint against Hamilton will define his career
Rosberg feels that the stint against Hamilton will play a crucial role in defining how the rest of Russell's career pans out. He also pointed out the fact that Russell was almost four-tenths of a second per lap faster than Lewis Hamilton throughout the Imola GP weekend, a clear sign of world championship potential if there was ever one.
“It is so important for George to be very close to Lewis, to beat him as much as possible, because it will really dictate how the rest of his career will go if Mercedes keep him on and things like that,”
“At Imola he was like four tenths quicker than Lewis all weekend and ahead of him all weekend, which was really an awesome job by George and the first time we really saw this potential World Championship level of driving from him.”
Russell has been the epitome of consistency this season for Mercedes and the rest of the grid. He has not finished outside the top five throughout the season while every other driver on the grid has already had a bad race or two. The way Russell has driven this season is an indication that the British driver could just be the true successor of Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
