Lewis Hamilton battle caused psychological 'shift' in F1 star

Mercedes F1 star George Russell has revealed the psychological 'shift' he had to implement in order to go up against seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Russell joined the Brackley-based outfit in 2022, just when Hamilton had narrowly missed out on the 2021 drivers' championship, and knew that his British rival would be desperate to claim a record-breaking eighth world title.

However, Russell managed to beat Hamilton across the season, finishing fourth, 35 points above his esteemed team-mate.

Russell would then go on to beat Hamilton in 2024 too, before the seven-time champion decided to jump ship and join Ferrari in his pursuit of an eighth world championship.

Now, Russell has discussed the shift needed in his mentality having previously fought against Nicholas Latifi and Robert Kubica at Williams prior to joining Hamilton at the Silver Arrows.

"I was thinking about how I'm going to deal with this psychologically until sort of one day I had a really good conversation with my psychologist about it, like how I should deal with the pressure of being his team-mate and concluded that when I walk into the garage, I'm jumping into my race car, I'm putting my helmet on, I'm putting my visor down," Russell revealed on the Untapped podcast.

"It should not matter if my team-mate in the garage next door is a seven-time world champion, or if he's a rookie, or if there's nobody there because I'm in control of my own destiny. And that's the approach that I had. It's like now this is on me to perform.

"And finally take in acceptance that if I were to finish ahead of Lewis in a season, I think my stats against previous team-mates were I finished ahead of them like 95 per cent of the time. I concluded, well, if I beat Lewis in a season, that's going to be an amazing achievement. But I'm not going to beat him 95 per cent of the time.

"So, if I beat him 55 per cent of the time over a year, that's amazing. But you've got to accept 45 per cent of the time, you're going to be behind him. And that's totally understandable because you cannot go up against the goat and expect to wipe the floor with him.

"So that was like probably the biggest psychology shift I had is like accepting that my goal is to beat him over a season, but there will be times that I will be behind him," the 27-year-old concluded.

Russell's 2025 season

Since Hamilton's departure to Ferrari, Russell has looked every bit the future championship challenger, taking over the number one driver role at the team alongside teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli.

In 2025, Russell has claimed a race victory and secured five further podium finishes despite McLaren's dominance, currently sat up in fourth in the drivers' championship just 15 points behind four-time world champion Max Verstappen.

With Mercedes rumoured to be taking the biggest step forward in 2026 due to the wholesale regulation changes entering the sport, Russell could well be in a good place to emulate Hamilton and win a championship with the Brackley-based outfit next season.

However, before that, Russell needs to secure his future, with the Brit currently due to be out of contract at Mercedes by the end of the 2025 season.

READ MORE: F1 boss admits Lewis Hamilton contract 'problem'

F1 HEADLINES: Mercedes reality sets in for Russell as emotional team exit revealed

READ MORE: F1 team change name ahead of Dutch GP

READ MORE: F1 driver salaries: What stars including Hamilton and Verstappen earn

Related