F1 commentator Peter Windsor has again questioned Mercedes’ decision to replace Valtteri Bottas with George Russell, claiming Russell is visibly “eating into Lewis Hamilton’s self-confidence.”
Despite helping Mercedes to five consecutive Constructors’ Championships after replacing Nico Rosberg in 2017, Bottas was dropped by Mercedes at the end of 2021 to make way for Russell, a product of the team’s driver academy.
The exit of Bottas, now competing for Alfa Romeo, coincided with Mercedes’ fall from grace, with the team struggling to adapt to the ground effect regulations implemented at the start of the 2022 season.
Do Lewis Hamilton and George Russell make a good match at Mercedes?
After leading his teammate to the finish line in Brazil, Russell became the only Mercedes driver to win a race in 2022. However, Hamilton has recovered well this year and leads his colleague by 72 points going into this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
But Hamilton hasn’t won a race since the Saudi Arabian penultimate round of 2021, and he’s going to have another losing year in 2023.
Speaking following last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying, in which Russell qualified third on the grid with Hamilton starting in tenth place, 1992 champion Williams team manager Windsor expressed his opinion that Mercedes erred in benching Bottas in favor of Russell.
He also believes that the 38-year-old Hamilton is beginning to show signs of strain. After falling in qualifying in Q2, Hamilton acknowledged he couldn’t go any faster in Vegas.
Windsor made an appearance on his YouTube channel and stated: “You still wonder if Mercedes made the right decision in firing Bottas and hiring George Russell in his place when you see him in that black Alfa, which kind of looks like Bottas in the black Mercedes days.
“Not because George isn’t fast—there is no question that George drives faster than Valtteri—but would we have a different Lewis if Valtteri was in the other car in terms of getting the best out of Lewis? Of course, that is an unanswered question.
“In my view, yes, and I believe that Lewis’s confidence and doubt begin to erode the moment George begins to move more quickly than Lewis.
“What is the margin? You can hear him asking on the radio.” Additionally, you can [hear] a breath of “Oof” when they announce George’s location.
Lewis said, “I just couldn’t go any quicker,” at the end of Q2, and I felt that was a very telling statement.
It might have something to do with the tire temperature and his level of grip, but I also believe it was a case of “I gave it everything, but I can’t drive like George Russell on a circuit like this.”
The recent remarks from Windsor follow his September claims at the Japanese Grand Prix that Hamilton “always wanted to keep Valtteri, not necessarily because he loved Valtteri but because it was the right balance of the team”; he compared their relationship to that of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at Red Bull, the 2023 World Champions.
Lewis was eager for Bottas to stay, as the driver told Finland’s MTV Sport just weeks before his departure from Mercedes was made public in 2021. “Lewis has told me directly that he would like me to be his team-mate,” Bottas said.
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