Russell, who is in his first year as a full-time Mercedes driver, has adjusted well to his new surroundings and is currently fourth in the drivers' standings, 21 points ahead of Hamilton.
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Mercedes led the constructors’ championship with 141 points after four races last season. However, they only have 77 points at this point in the season, and are currently 47 points behind first-placed Ferrari. Despite this, Team Principal Toto Wolff has praised the “positive,” “productive” relationship that his “refreshed” line-up of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton has this season. Russell, who is in his first year as a full-time Mercedes driver, has adjusted well to his new surroundings and is currently fourth in the drivers’ standings, 21 points ahead of Hamilton.
And speaking after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, where Hamilton finished a lap down in P13 and Russell claimed P4, Wolff praised the pair’s collaboration while lamenting the fact that Mercedes had yet to provide them with a car to fight for victories this season. “Yes, I’m very impressed with how [George has] settled in, how professionally and analytically he helps to assess the situation,” said Wolff. “The combination is one of the very few highlights I have at the moment on our journey – how well the two of them work together, with no friction; on the contrary, [they’re] very productive and positive for the team.”
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“And I couldn’t be happier with the driver line-up; in that respect I think we have the two best drivers, maybe two of the three best drivers and they deserve a car and a power unit that fights at the front rather than them being lapped. That’s not what any of them deserves.”
Wolff also defended Hamilton, who has had a difficult start to 2022, including failing to make it out of Q1 in Saudi Arabia and a tense race at Imola in which he was lapped by 2021 title rival Max Verstappen. However, Wolff was unambiguous in calling the seven-time champion “the best driver in the world,” adding that the problem was with the Mercedes W13, not the driver.
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“Well, you know in a way I have to protect him here. It’s not his low. It’s the low of the car performance,” said Wolff. “We know that he is a seven-time world champion. He caught up last year, him and us the team caught up and nearly fought for the championship.”
“The guy is the best driver in the world, and he’s just not having a machine and equipment underneath him to be able to execute… In a way I think it’s irrelevant if you come in eighth or 12th or 15th, it doesn’t matter; it’s all bad. But the real stars recover. There are none out there of the really great ones that come into my mind that didn’t have certain moments in their career where things didn’t run properly, and that is the case now with him since a long time. He’s going to help the team to sort things out, we are sticking together through good and bad times and today [at Imola] was certainly a very bad day,” he added.
