Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he ‘learned to be a better team-mate’ to George Russell during his 945-day winless streak.
The seven-time world champion broke his drought at Silverstone earlier this summer after Mercedes finally got on top of their struggles with the ground-effect cars.
Hamilton and Russell have been colleagues at Mercedes since Valtteri Bottas departed the team at the end of the 2021 campaign, but until Hamilton won in front of his home crowd, it was his team-mate who had stolen the headlines, winning in Brazil in 2022 and in Austria earlier this season.
Despite this, and a handful of on-track skirmishes, Hamilton and Russell have enjoyed a strong working relationship, and according to the former, this has been improved by the hard work that has gone on during Mercedes’ time away from the spotlight.
“It’s been mostly a battle of the mind,” Hamilton told Esquire.
“Keeping yourself sane, trying to pick up new tools. Ultimately, it always comes back to persistence and dedication. Hard work.
“It always does eventually pay off. I think I learned that life is really about how much pain you can experience and keep going, and how much you can suffer and keep moving forward, you know? And that’s life, right?
“It’s not how you fall; it’s how you get up. It’s how you continue to apply yourself every single day. It’s how you connect with people that you work with. I probably learned to be a better teammate in this period of time, because we’ve had more time to focus on communication.”
Thankfully, Leclerc is excited about the prospect of teaming up with the iconic Brit.
“First, because it’s super interesting and super motivating for me,” he told Motorsport.com.
“Super interesting because I can learn from one of the best-ever Formula One drivers.
“And second, super motivating because I’m super motivated to show what I’m capable of doing against Lewis in the same car. So, for these two reasons, I’m really looking forward to it.”
