Juan Pablo Montoya gives thoughts on Hamilton/Russell battle at Mercedes

Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has said that George Russell’s recent seasons with Williams are what is giving him an edge over Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes at the moment.

The two British drivers are not where they want to be in terms of the championship standings, and it looks as though it’s already unlikely that either of them will be winning the title this year.

Indeed, the W13 looks well off of the pace of the Red Bull and Ferrari cars up at the front, and many have noted how much Lewis Hamilton has struggled in particular, with George Russell able to extract some decent points out of the season so far despite the problems the car is throwing up.

Without a doubt, Russell is doing a fine job at Mercedes but Montoya believes the criticism Lewis is getting at the moment is not fair, because he is perhaps slightly rusty when it comes to wheel-to-wheel combat in the middle of the pack given the roaring success he has had in the recent past.

“Lewis is struggling and people are like – ‘it really shows it was just the car, look how good George is,” said Montoya to Vegas Insider.

“I’m a big fan of George, I really like Lewis as well. I think the biggest difference is that you have got to remember, George has been in Williams for the past three-four seasons. So, he’s been in the melee every weekend. Like he is ‘traffic, traffic’ and racing people all day.

“And Lewis, the last seven/eight seasons, he’s been cruising by himself every weekend. He hasn’t really raced people because when he gets to lap them, everybody needs to get out of the way.

“All of a sudden he’s stuck in traffic and it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you don’t practice it, it’s hard.

“Somebody who’s been doing it all his life (George Russell), it