George Russell says the departure of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes is such a giant change that it’ll “spark a number of motivation” because the crew enters a brand new period.
Hamilton accomplished his closing race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, forward of his transfer to Ferrari in 2025. The swap means Mercedes is not going to have Hamilton as a part of its line-up for the primary time since 2012, when it ran Michael Schumacher alongside Nico Rosberg. Russell believes the departure serves as a reminder of what has been achieved, but in addition gives a contemporary begin.
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“We had a do on Thursday night time [in Abu Dhabi] altogether, wanting again on a few of his recollections, and I feel as painful as these three years have been, I feel seeing all of those recollections as nicely reminds the crew that we are able to do it,” Russell mentioned. “We’ve the identical crew as was there throughout Lewis’s glory years.
“And Lewis even mentioned after the debrief, everybody had their head of their fingers after what occurred in qualifying, however he mentioned ‘Look, let’s stand tall and never overlook of all these pole positions and wins that we’ve had collectively’. I feel it’s been a really good method to end this season.
“It has been a troublesome three years, and I feel this modification for everybody is basically going to spark a number of motivation for everybody. And I feel generally change is basically a lot wanted.”
Russell mentioned his personal private classes realized from Hamilton are much less primarily based on his driving skills and extra the way in which the seven-time world champion has carried himself as one in every of System 1’s main figures.
“To be sincere, simply seeing first hand what a job mannequin he’s,” Russell mentioned. “I acknowledge from Lewis that we’ve all received this platform, and we have now to make use of it appropriately. That’s turn into much more obvious to me when, with my younger niece and nephews watching TikTok and YouTube and Netflix. I spend a little bit of time with Toto [Wolff]’s son, he and his mates see Netflix and all of these items.
“And the way you take care of the victories, the way you take care of the losses, you encourage the younger children, and… after I look again to that picture I had of Lewis and I after I was a child, I seemed as much as him, the identical method as all these children look as much as us. I feel that’s in all probability been the largest life lesson that I’ve realized from him, that generally, even if you wish to actually categorical one thing, there’s lots of of tens of millions of individuals watching, and the way in which do you it will be significant.”
