Damon Hill sends warning to Lewis Hamilton over new Mercedes teammate George Russell

The 2022 F1 season starts this Sunday, in Bahrain, with all scores reset to zero.

Will Lewis Hamilton avenge the trauma of Abu Dhabi to trounce reigning champ Max Verstappen and seize a record-breaking eighth world title?

Maybe, but first of all Hamilton needs to beat a young new team-mate. After three seasons of experience with Williams, George Russell is now in what one expects will be a championship-challenging Mercedes.

Damon Hill knows what it is like to be the fresh face in a title-winning team, and to compete alongside a far more experienced team-mate. He did so at Williams in the 1990s with Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell. Does the 1996 world champion have some advice for 24-year-old Russell (below)?

He’s going to need to be faster than he’s ever been before,’ says Hill. ‘But he’s not new to F1 and he’s not completely new to the team, so he’s not totally out of his comfort zone.’

The embers of controversy around the race director’s decision-making at the 2021 season finale remain, despite the FIA’s decision to recast the role and review safety car procedures.

Hill says regardless of the outcome, the way Abu Dhabi was handled was regrettable. Nevertheless, he would have kept Michael Masi in the job.

‘I thought they should have backed Michael,’ he adds. ‘It was clear last year that pressure was being applied tactically on the race director [by both Mercedes and Red Bull].

‘Given the ambition to have the race finish as a race rather than behind the safety car, maybe he could have been excused for cracking under pressure.’

That race was watched on TV by 109million people globally. New fans have been tuning in, particularly in the USA, and Netflix’s Drive to Survive series has ramped up the storytelling.

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