Dutch rant reveals Hamilton has F1 fight on his hands with George Russell

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A furious Lewis Hamilton lambasted his team as he once again fell behind George Russell, in a Dutch GP outburst that revealed the close competition within Mercedes, writes Tony Dodgins

George Russell gives the thumbs up as he is followed by Lewis Hamilton

John Thys/AFP via Gety Images

Back at Silverstone, I heard it suggested that the current trio of British drivers is the strongest combination we’ve ever had.

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris. Would you take that trio over Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill?

It’s impossible to make generational comparisons with any degree of authority. But if the good Lord had all the metrics and making the wrong choice meant a lightning bolt, I wouldn’t be sure which way to go.

It’s competitive people behaving like competitive people do when things go wrong

Hamilton’s mini rant at the Mercedes pitwall before he remembered himself and apologised, was revealing. He was about to finish up behind Russell for the eighth time in the 13 races they’ve both completed in 2022, and clearly didn’t like the idea. Forget Max Verstappen: different car, different team. Your main competition is always the one within and you can’t be other than impressed by the superb job Russell has done in his first season at Mercedes. Never mind race-winner, George is an obvious future champion in the right machinery.

You had to smile at Lewis’s “you effers have effed me again,” when you consider what Mercedes served him up with between 2014-21! But they won’t hold it against him. A bit like Malaysia 2016 when the engine went pop amid a tight one with Nico Rosberg after being the very definition of reliability for the previous three years.

It’s just competitive people behaving like competitive people do when things go wrong. It’s John McEnroe berating the line judge and then annihilating the court-side flower arrangement.

Lando Norris George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in 2022 F1 driver photo

Norris, Russell and Hamilton have a claim to be the strongest British trio in grand prix history

Dan Istitene/F1 via Getty Images

Thing is, Hamilton knows he’s got a fight on his hands with George and, currently 30 points down, is looking at being out-pointed by a team-mate for the third time in his F1 career. Jenson Button achieved it at McLaren in 2011 and, in fact, did it on aggregate over their three seasons together. But even so, ask anyone at McLaren who was quicker and Lewis would always be the answer. Even Jenson himself admits that he struggled against Lewis over a single lap.

But Russell doesn’t. Before the season started, I was chatting with Channel 4’s commentator, Alex Jacques, and suggested that Russell would outqualify Hamilton more often than the other way around but, in the races, Lewis would come out on top. Maybe I was being a bit provocative but I genuinely felt that George might edge it over one lap.

In races though, Hamilton, like Fernando Alonso, has always been totally relentless – fit, focused, hardly ever missing an overtaking opportunity, super-savvy wheel-to-wheel, seldom dropping it and really strong with tyre management. But you need to be even more if you’re starting behind the other guy and he has pitstop priority, etc.

Jackie Stewart Graham Hill and Jim Clark at Indianapolis

Stewart, Hill and Clark: still a stronger line-up than their modern equivalents?

Eric Rickman/The Enthusiast Network via Getty images

Some of the qualifying efforts Russell performed at Williams were truly outstanding although it was hard to gauge Robert Kubica’s post-2011 level. And Nicholas Latifi couldn’t get near him. Probably, Robert did a much better job than anyone appreciated and was always closer to Russell on a Sunday.

Because of the numbers that go with having a talent like Hamilton’s and the best car for nine, arguably 10 seasons of his F1 career, you get to the sort of pole / win numbers he has, and all this GOAT stuff. Along with a perception that he is the most ballistic thing ever to sit in a racing car.

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He is very fast – obviously. But, for me, he’s not Senna fast. Lewis has outqualified a team-mate by more than a second twice, both times in the wet. Senna did it 10 times. In the dry.

Over nine seasons with Nico Rosberg / Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes, Hamilton averaged around 0.2sec quicker for single-lap speed. Significant against quality opposition, but not as overwhelming as the half-second margin that Verstappen had over just about anyone sat in the second Red Bull. Which is why I figured Russell would give Lewis a good run.

It’s been super-tight between the pair. Russell’s Budapest pole put him 7-6 up in his qualifying head-to-head with Hamilton and, for the first time, his overall average season’s qualifying pace was quicker. By a hundredth! Since then, Lewis has outqualified George at Spa and Zandvoort and is now 8-7 up. The average qualifying gap between them? Just eleven thousandths of a second. Unsurprisingly, it’s the closest team-mate qualifying comparison across the entire grid.

George Russell passes Lewis Hamilton in the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix

“I can’t believe you guys f***ing screwed me, I can’t tell you how pissed I am,” raged Hamilton, who was passed by Russell after losing the Dutch GP lead to Verstappen

Vince Mignott/MB Media via Getty Images

Then, take a look over at McLaren. By comparison, the gap between Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, is a chasm – almost 0.35sec.

Lando and Carlos Sainz were pretty evenly-matched in their seasons together but, for whatever reason, Ricciardo has never been comfortable with the McLaren. There are only two bigger deficits over the grid, that between Bottas and rookie Zhou Guanyu at Alfa (0.419sec) and Albon / Latifi at Williams (0.697sec). Which indicates that Latifi might be a bit out of his depth, and probably says quite a lot about Albon’s current level too.

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But, back to Norris. This is against an eight-time grand prix winner who, for the better part of two seasons at Red Bull, was nip-and-tuck with Verstappen. It’s a way bigger margin than you would expect for a driver of Daniel’s calibre and McLaren’s decision not to continue for a third season is not really surprising. If you’re paying the big bucks, you expect the performance. And if you’re not getting it, well…

Of course, McLaren is going to have to pay not to get the performance as well, which always sticks in the craw. But if Daniel is not doing it, you might as well go in search of the next big thing. It will be fascinating to see how Oscar Piastri stacks up against Norris, especially in year two if you cut him a year’s rookie slack.

That three-and-a-half tenths that Ricciardo is missing will be a combination of three things: his personal unsuitability to the characteristics of the McLaren, the knock to his confidence, and the level of the ever-improving Norris. Piastri will have to hope that it’s not largely the latter. If it is, Hamilton/Russell/Lando really might be in that frame with Clark/Stewart/Hill!

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