Mercedes notes: 'That's why Russell was able to adapt better than Hamilton'

Mercedes appeared at the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season with a car that would prove problematic for the rest of the year. Initially, George Russell seemed to handle that better than his teammate Lewis Hamilton, but according to Andrew Shovlin, there is a clear explanation.

Russell made his debut as a full-time driver for Mercedes in 2022, after transferring from a struggling Williams. Despite imagining his first season at the German racetrack differently, he often managed to make the most of it and performed consistently, especially in the first half of the season.

Hamilton, on the other hand, struggled more with the W13 and, as the season progressed, spoke out in increasingly scathing terms about the "nightmare" he had to drive in. Later, the team explained that the Briton experimented a lot with different set-ups and that this partly contributed to his mixed results.

Russell had less trouble adjusting than Hamilton

According to Shovlin, however, there is another reason why Russell seemed to have less trouble with the Mercedes car. In doing so, he refers to the experience the young Briton had with less competitive cars at his previous team. This is in contrast to Hamilton, who experienced a sudden transition from a winning car to one that struggled to achieve the occasional podium.

Mercedes' trackside engineering director thinks Russell had hoped his first year with the team would have been different, but praises him for his adaptability. "I think to be honest in the early part of the year, it probably was easier for George to adapt than it was for Lewis," Shovlin said in conversation with Autosport.com.