Jacques Villeneuve draws parallels between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in 2022 to Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo in 2014

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve mentioned that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's inter-team performances in the 2022 season resembled the performances of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel from 2014.

The Aussie joined Red Bull from their junior team Toro Rosso at the beginning of the 2014 season to partner against the four-time reigning world champion. But Ricciardo was unfazed by the challenge and finished ahead of Vettel in the 2014 driver's standings.

George Russell did the same to Lewis Hamilton in the 2022 season as he finished higher in the standings and had more eye-catching performances than his Mercedes teammate. While speaking with PlanetF1, Villeneuve drew parallels between the two driver pairings and how they were eerily similar. He said:

“George last year was typical… [remember] what [Daniel] Ricciardo did when he arrived in Red Bull? George moved from Williams to Mercedes and Lewis was there. So compare Vettel to Ricciardo, and Lewis to George. Lewis wants to win races… but George wants to beat Lewis. So it’s not the same approach in setting the car up."

He continued:

“Lewis didn’t want to settle for third or fourth, so you end up maybe pushing in areas on setups to try and compensate for half a second. And, oftentimes, that will make you go slower. That’s what happened with Vettel that first year against Ricciardo."

"So the rookie driver just minds his own business and is just happy to be the teammate and suddenly, [they’re] amazing, but, in the second year, that doesn’t work anymore.”

George Russell speaks on holding his own against Lewis Hamilton

The young Brit stated that he was proud of himself for holding his own against a seven-time world champion like Lewis Hamilton in the same material in the past two seasons.

George Russel pointed out that despite being pretty tight in terms of performances against Lewis Hamilton, he was happy to be in the same bracket as his teammate and Max Verstappen. As per Total-Motorsport, Russell said:

"Being teammates with Lewis is great. Because it keeps us both on our toes. I showed last year what I could do with my pace, performance and victory. This year, I think it's always very tight between the two of us."

"I'm proud of that, to be honest, because, you know, I want to beat everybody. But I also need to recognize that I'm going against the greatest of all time. So if you're on a level playing field with someone like Lewis with someone like Max, I think you must be doing a pretty good job."

Russell is likely to finish behind Hamilton in the 2023 season. However, it will be interesting to see if the Brit can challenge Hamilton and Verstappen if McLaren can provide championship-contending machinery next season.