Andrew Shovlin reckons George Russell’s time with Williams Racing meant he was able to adapt to the difficult W13 faster than Lewis Hamilton was able to as the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team struggled early on during the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.
From being a front-running team throughout the turbo hybrid era, Mercedes found themselves falling away from the leading battle, with Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing getting a jump on them.
Early in the season, Russell and Hamilton were often found fighting in the midfield rather than at the front, and it was Russell who appeared to get the best out of the car when it was at its worst. As the season continued and Mercedes improved their performance, the gap between the two drivers closed, and Hamilton ended the year looking the stronger of the two.
However, Shovlin, the Track Engineering Director at Mercedes, reckons the early season form from Russell was because of his time with Williams, which was a much more difficult car to drive compared to those cars Hamilton had been used to previously.
“The routes [of] Lewis through to that point and George through to that point were quite different,” said Shovlin to Motorsport.com. “Lewis I think had a rather sort of sudden period of adjustment from a car that he knew that he could if he delivered what he was capable of he’d be fighting for the win at any given weekend.
“George, having come from Williams, I think his experience there probably put him in good stead to deal with the car we were racing and trying to qualify at the start of the year.
“I think there was an element with George where he was probably hoping the experience would be a bit more different from the one he was used too, but he was very good at just getting on with the challenge that was in front of him.
“And 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. What was nice to see almost straightaway was the two of them were working to put the team in a better place.
“The way they were working together, the way they were happy to share out the workload – the number one focus was on improving the car, not squabbling over who was going to finish fifth and who was going to finish sixth.
“And it’s nice that you’ve got that maturity within the drivers and maturity within the team because ultimately, the whole engineering group working together and the drivers working together is the way that you shortcut the time it takes you to get back to where you want to be.”
