George Russell and Lewis Hamilton have shared to an extreme, a close battle over the course of their two seasons as Mercedes teammates.

Martin Brundle has declined to rule out the prospect that George Russell could defeat Lewis Hamilton to win a World Championship in the event that Mercedes follows Red Bull’s lead and develops a strong, championship-worthy vehicle for the 2024 or 2025 season.

During a Q&A session with fans on Sky Sports F1, the renowned co-commentator was asked which Mercedes driver, if the Silver Arrows were to build a car worthy of winning World Championships before the 2026 rule changes, would win a championship fight.

“If you look at the stats, I think those two are really close,” Brundle said. However, George experienced a few terrifying races this year. It’s a really valid question. Lewis’s ability to sustain his present motivation will determine the outcome, but it’s too close to say.

Lewis is capable of doing that, but George benefits from youth.
I don’t know the answer, but I most certainly wouldn’t say that Lewis is the clear winner because he has already won seven times. That is something I would never say. We won’t know if George has the mental capacity to handle it until he is in a championship-winning situation”.

From the beginning of the 2022 season, when Russell moved up from Williams to take Valtteri Bottas’ seat, the rivalry between the Mercedes teammates has been fierce. The new addition triumphed in his first season with the Silver Arrows, taking advantage of Hamilton’s experimental setup work to finish 35 points ahead of the seven-time champion.

Nonetheless, Hamilton demonstrated in 2023 that he still views himself as Mercedes’ main driver by winning the Drivers’ Championship in third place with one round remaining, besting the other two Red Bull drivers and finishing 59 points ahead of teammate Russell, who struggled to finish in eighth.

“And because they’re clearly very attractive people from the time of their total dominance, there has been a lot of personnel turnover. It’s evident in other sports, where a group of players who seemed to be unstoppable suddenly find themselves unable to win.

It’s quite peculiar, and all it takes is a few or three jigsaw puzzle pieces to shift in one direction or another. Though they have a formidable team, Mercedes has a big year ahead of them in 2024 if their stars can once again align”.