"The real Lewis Hamilton stepped up a bit this year"- Karun Chandhok critiques George Russell's 2023 F1 season

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok mentioned that George Russell's 2023 season was overshadowed by Lewis Hamilton's improvement from last year.

The young British driver had a pretty disappointing season in 2023 as he could only muster two podiums in 22 completed races compared to his teammate's six. Russell also found himself making far too many mistakes, which resulted in him losing points and ground in the races.

While appearing on the Sky Sports podcast, Karun Chandhok critiqued George Russell's second season with Mercedes while also pointing out that "the real Lewis Hamilton" stepped up. He said:

"He got 100 fewer points than he got in the 2022 season, only two podiums this year, so it was a step back by his own admissions. Both he and Lewis were evenly matched in qualifying but in some ways, the real Lewis Hamilton stepped up a bit this year.

I think last year and the early part of the season perhaps a little bit of a hangover from Abu Dhabi 2021, big frustration that he arrived in the new era of cars and the car wasn't there and it wasn't capable of championships."

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George Russell reflects on the "toughest" season of his career

The Mercedes driver stated that the 2023 season has been the toughest psychologically for him thus far in his career. Speaking with Motorsport Magazine, George Russell said:

“No doubt it’s been probably the toughest season I’ve ever had psychologically. Bouncing back from missed opportunities, missed results, mistakes. I think this is when you push yourself. I could comfortably lift my foot off the gas pedal and drive a percent below the limit and I could sit here right now and tell you that I wouldn’t make a single mistake.

And probably when I sit through my championship years, I wasn’t being pushed as much as I’m pushing myself now. I’m purposely trying to push myself further and beyond, and I’m not satisfied with just being on par with my team-mate in qualifying or whatever it may be. Or last year [when] we were very even across the whole season. I want to be ahead. And that’s what I’m pushing myself for."

It would be interesting to see whether George Russell can bounce back against Lewis Hamilton in the 2024 season if both the drivers start on an equal footing and are more competitive on the grid.