Ex-driver turned pundit, Jolyon Palmer, believes Lewis Hamilton has stopped the changing of the guard at Mercedes. F1
There was great intrigue surrounding the new Mercedes driver line-up for 2022, the harmonious partnership of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas broken up after the duo delivered five Constructors’ titles in succession.
All eyes were on the pair then to see how Hamilton would deal with his new team-mate, tipped as a possible future World Champion, and for a time earlier in the season it was Russell picking up the best of Mercedes’ results, establishing a buffer over Hamilton in theHamilton’s head had dropped a little, but as the season has gone on, Mercedes extracting more performance out of their underwhelming W13, Hamilton has returned to form, the seven-time World Champion claiming three P2 finishes so far...
“New team-mate, new pressures with being one of the older drivers in the championship, he’s the second-oldest behind Fernando [Alonso] now.coming in, Lewis was comfortable alongside Valtteri Bottas for the last handful of seasons, but when you have a new talented youngster come in, it can change the dynamic.
“And there was a moment earlier in the season where it looked like Russell was doing it and wow, was this the changing of the guard? Is this Russell now is the future of Mercedes? In the same way [Charles] Leclerc beat [Sebastian] Vettel, same way as [Daniel] Ricciardo beat Vettel and then [Max] Verstappen beat Ricciardo at Red Bull.