Russell and Hamilton are set to embark on their second season as Mercedes team-mates in the 2023 campaign, which will follow the difficult 2022 season where Mercedes’ W13 challenger was initially badly off the pace and impacted severely by porpoising.
Although Hamilton was known to prefer Mercedes possibly keeping Valtteri Bottas across the garage rather than promoting Russell for 2022, the pair’s new working relationship did not come under strain as they worked with their Silver Arrows squad to improve the W13.
