A former Formula 1 race winner has tipped George Russell to be a "handful" for Lewis Hamilton, and told the seven-time world champion he needs to "lift his game".
Russell's rise has been a sharp one, impressing with Williams to earn his shot at Mercedes and the general consensus that he is a future F1 world champion. To do that, in the next couple of years at least, he will need to usurp team-mate Hamilton as top dog within the team.
That will not be easy, despite a strong debut season which has seen Russell outscore his much more experienced team-mate so far. Hamilton has voiced his desire to continue racing for years to come despite approaching his 38th birthday, and wants to help the team to return to regular contention for race wins.
But despite a frustrating season so far for Mercedes, and Russell's impressive consistency, the relationship between the two Brits has remained strong. That is in stark contrast to the last time Hamilton had a title rival within his own team, as things got ugly between him and Nico Rosberg in 2016.
Five-time F1 race winner John Watson pointed to that example as he explained his belief that Russell will cause all sorts of problems for his team-mate. "The fact that can't be denied is Hamilton is five or six years older than he was in 2016," he told Planet F1.
"He's now at a point in his life... does he really want to go out and hang it out on the very ragged edge? Or has he still got sufficient ability and maturity to know how to win without having to put himself into zones like maybe Charles Leclerc did at Paul Ricard [ when the Ferrari driver crashed while pushing his car to the limit ]?
"I believe Hamilton has still got that. But he has got a handful with Russell. And he needs to be able to win against Russell – he doesn't need Russell to win a grand prix this year before Lewis wins a grand prix this year.
"It's the dynamic of a younger guy against the mature incumbent. It's happened all the way through the history of motorsport. That's what drives on generations and generations. It's up to Lewis to lift his game and in my view, he's got the ability and the capacity to do so."
Watson went on to suggest Russell could "overwhelm" Hamilton, though, and claimed that if that were to happen then it "would be the end of Lewis as a grand prix driver". But in a more positive statement about Mercedes, he also expressed his belief that the Silver Arrows may yet win a race before the 2022 campaign draws to a close.
"I believe Mercedes will, at some point, over the course of these [remaining] races win a grand prix," he added. "Whether it's one grand prix or more, I don't know. But I sense the team have the capacity."
