George Russell has his best opportunity to establish himself as top dog at Mercedes over Lewis Hamilton, in the view of one former Formula 1 champion.
Russell scored 35 more points than his more experienced team-mate last season, though both had bigger things to worry about than beating each other. Mercedes were well off the pace, leaving the two Brits to work together to score as many points as they could with their limited machinery.
At the start of another tough-looking season, the story appears similar. The Silver Arrows look unlikely to play a major role in the 2023 title race and it remains to be seen how the two drivers will deal with another season of tempered expectations.
Emerson Fittipaldi thinks the time is right for Russell to establish his authority. "For sure, Russell is more aggressive now. He is more experienced now and the Mercedes team knows him much better now. It seems like he is becoming a better fit for the team," the double F1 champion told MyBettingSites.
"This is his best chance to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton and show that he has the level. It is going to be very interesting to see what happens. His situation is quite similar to Sergio Perez in my opinion. He will be driving 110% now and be aggressive to go past people."
Even though he clearly rates Russell highly, Fittipaldi still has no doubt that Hamilton has a lot more to give. And he feels Mercedes will be able to get back to challenging Red Bull for race wins and the championship in the future.
The Brazilian added: "The beginning of last season was very similar for Lewis Hamilton. He seems like he has some problems with adapting to the new car and the new rules. He is not able to get the maximum of this car at the moment. Judging from the outside he needs to adapt and then he will be back to his previous level.
"He is so good, as we all know, but he can definitely improve in every single kilometre. No-one can take away his great talent but for some reason the car is not a perfect fit for him and he needs to solve that problem and adapt.
"Lewis will be back. Mercedes are a top team. Their priority is to challenge Red Bull. They have the capacity, the human resources and technical resources to be there. And with someone as experienced as Lewis, I'm sure the analysts will be collecting the right information around the car.
"The car is running in the midfield right now so there's different turbulence, different speed – a completely different situation. It's more difficult to run in the midfield with all the dirty air. All this information will help Mercedes come back for sure."
