George Russell says the departure of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes is such an enormous change that it’s going to “spark lots of motivation” because the staff enters a brand new period.
Hamilton accomplished his remaining race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, forward of his transfer to Ferrari in 2025. The change 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 additionally presents a recent begin.
“We had a do on Thursday evening [in Abu Dhabi] altogether, wanting again on a few of his recollections, and I believe as painful as these three years have been, I believe seeing all of those recollections as effectively reminds the staff that we are able to do it,” Russell mentioned. “We’ve got the identical staff as was there throughout Lewis’s glory years.
“And Lewis even mentioned after the debrief, everybody had their head of their palms 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 believe it’s been a really good method to end this season.
“It has been a troublesome three years, and I believe this transformation for everybody is actually going to spark lots of motivation for everybody. And I believe typically change is actually a lot wanted.”
Russell mentioned his personal private classes realized from Hamilton are much less based mostly on his driving skills and extra the way in which the seven-time world champion has carried himself as certainly one 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 acquired this platform, and we have now to make use of it accurately. That’s change 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 buddies see Netflix and all of these things.
“And the way you take care of the victories, the way you take care of the losses, you encourage the younger youngsters, and… once I look again to that picture I had of Lewis and I once I was a child, I regarded as much as him, the identical means as all these youngsters look as much as us. I believe that’s most likely been the largest life lesson that I’ve realized from him, that typically, even if you wish to actually categorical one thing, there’s a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of individuals watching, and the way in which do you it is vital.”
