A prominent member of the Formula 1 community suggested Mercedes should rip up George Russell's contract to benefit Lewis Hamilton, in recently resurfaced footage.
Both Russell and Hamilton are not able to enjoy the success that they crave thanks to a less competitive car. The story has been the same ever since they first partnered up at the start of the 2022 season, with the younger Brit expecting to be able to compete for regular victories only to be left disappointed.
They worked well together last year to maximise their points, with Russell coming out on top in the intra-team battle by 35 points at the end of the year. Only two races have been run so far this year and just two points separate them at the moment with Hamilton slightly ahead.
It looks likely, then, that Russell will continue to give his more experienced team-mate still competition within the team when it comes to getting results. Perhaps because of that, comments made by veteran F1 journalist Peter Windsor last year have resurfaced on social media.
Speaking on the Cameron F1 YouTube channel, Windsor suggested that Hamilton would be much happier and better off if the more compliant Valtteri Bottas was still his team-mate and said, if he were in charge of Mercedes, that he would be instructing Russell to know his place.
"The problem is George, of course – it's not anything more or less than that, said Windsor. "And you've got to remember Lewis wanted to keep Valtteri. So something big happened there in Lewis' mind... They didn't listen to him and they signed George.
"There are a lot of good reasons to have George. He's the future, if Lewis retires they've got the guy, more points for the team and all the rest of it. All of them actually amount to nothing if you put them alongside Michael Schumacher's obvious evidence of how to win a championship. You don't play around and every point counts.
" Red Bull would never in a million years have though of signing George Russell, even if he was available, and put him along Max Verstappen. But Mercedes did.
"If I was now drafted in as team principal at Mercedes, I would say, 'George, here's the contract, it's in two pieces now mate. If you want to keep driving no problem, sign on the dotted line here and you will never finish in front of Lewis Hamilton. Sorry'."
