George Russell says the departure of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes is such an enormous change that it’ll “spark a variety of motivation” because the group enters a brand new period.
Hamilton accomplished his closing race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, forward of his transfer to Ferrari in 2025. The swap means Mercedes won’t have Hamilton as a part of its line-up for the primary time since 2012, when it ran Michael Schumacher alongside Nico Rosberg. Russell believes the departure serves as a reminder of what has been achieved, but additionally gives a recent begin.
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“We had a do on Thursday evening [in Abu Dhabi] altogether, trying again on a few of his recollections, and I feel as painful as these three years have been, I feel seeing all of those recollections as nicely reminds the group that we will do it,” Russell mentioned. “Now we have the identical group as was there throughout Lewis’s glory years.
“And Lewis even mentioned after the debrief, everybody had their head of their fingers after what occurred in qualifying, however he mentioned ‘Look, let’s stand tall and never neglect of all these pole positions and wins that we’ve had collectively’. I feel it’s been a really good strategy to end this season.
“It has been a tricky three years, and I feel this transformation for everybody is actually going to spark a variety of motivation for everybody. And I feel generally change is actually a lot wanted.”
Russell mentioned his personal private classes realized from Hamilton are much less based mostly on his driving talents and extra the way in which the seven-time world champion has carried himself as one among Formulation 1’s main figures.
“To be sincere, simply seeing first hand what a task mannequin he’s,” Russell mentioned. “I acknowledge from Lewis that we’ve all obtained this platform, and we now have to make use of it accurately. That’s grow to be much more obvious to me when, with my younger niece and nephews watching TikTok and YouTube and Netflix. I spend a little bit of time with Toto [Wolff]’s son, he and his buddies see Netflix and all of these items.
“And the way you take care of the victories, the way you take care of the losses, you encourage the younger children, and… after I look again to that photograph I had of Lewis and I after I was a child, I regarded as much as him, the identical approach as all these children look as much as us. I feel that’s in all probability been the largest life lesson that I’ve realized from him, that generally, even if you wish to actually specific one thing, there’s a whole lot of thousands and thousands of individuals watching, and the way in which do you it can be crucial.”