‘Makes him angry’ – Lewis Hamilton’s ex-team-mate Nico Rosberg says F1 legend will hate finishing behind George Russell
LEWIS HAMILTON will be feeling “angry” at finishing behind George Russell this season, according to former foe Nico Rosberg.
The seven-time F1 world champion, 37, has endured a nightmare start to the season, most-recently finishing 13th at the Emilia-Romagna GP in his “undriveable” Mercedes.
In fact, Hamilton has finished behind Russell, 24, in three of the four races this season, with Rosberg claiming his former team-mate will be fuming.
Hamilton and Rosberg were fierce rivals during their four years together at Mercedes between 2013 and 2016
And Rosberg has now told Sky Sports: “It’s definitely a very tough situation for Lewis.
“He’s won a race in every season of his career and it looks like maybe this will be the year when he can’t win anymore.
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“You can see how the tension is rising and that’s natural.
“Lewis will obviously start to show those emotions a little bit.
“Nevertheless, with the experience he has I think he will eventually manage to keep those under control.
“Let’s not forget also Lewis hates ending up behind his team-mate.”
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Rosberg explained: “Even if you’re 11th or 13th he really passionately hates coming in behind his team-mate.
“It makes him very angry.
“That also happened at Imola in qualifying and the sprint race…
“It will put the tension up a lot, especially in the engineering room where Lewis will be pushing harder and harder.
“It will be interesting to watch how that unfolds.”
Hamilton finished third in Bahrain – the opening race of the 2022 season – with Russell, enjoying his first season as a Mercedes driver, coming in fourth.
But since then, the youngster has won the battle of the team-mates in every race, coming fifth, third and fourth to the veteran’s results of tenth, fourth and 13th.
Rosberg knows what it takes to beat Hamilton – and knows how he reacts to it.
The retired German, 36, out-qualified Hamilton in 36 of their 78 races together and won 22 Grands Prix.
Rosberg even won one World Championship title while partnering Hamilton at Mercedes.
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Russell trails both Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, as well as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the standings this season and looks unlikely to challenge for a debut title.
But outperforming Hamilton in his first season at Mercedes following his years at Williams would be no mean feat – and one legend Gerhard Berger has hinted “will soon get on Hamilton’s nerves“.