Lewis Hamilton: Mika Hakkinen feels George Russell could 'irritate' team-mate

Former Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen has said that Lewis Hamilton may become irritated if the teamwork at Mercedes is not as good with George Russell as it was with Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton and Russell are together as team-mates for the first time this season at Mercedes, and managed to finish 3rd and 4th at the opening race last weekend; the Bahrain Grand Prix.

They appear to be getting on well, too, with them praising each other’s work both post-race and on social media, so it does not seem as though there’s any friction between them as they look to get Mercedes back to being the leading car in F1.

Despite that, though, Finnish F1 icon and double-world champion Hakkinen has said that if the teamwork does not continue or does not reach the levels it did when Valtteri Bottas was in the Silver Arrows’ garage, Lewis Hamilton might get irritated.

“I believe and I know from my experience that Lewis is relatively sensitive,” said Hakkinen during a video for Unibet’s YouTube channel.

“He is a sensitive person. When Valtteri was Lewis’ team-mate, the teamwork was perfect. Now, the support he’s going to get from Russell… the teamwork could be lost. That’s where Lewis can become irritated.”

Of course, the dynamic will always change when a new driver pairing is put together and Mercedes had it pretty perfect when Hamilton and Bottas were working together, especially after the fraught relationship they had to manage with Nico Rosberg and Hamilton under the same roof.

Russell does not seem a disruptive character in fairness to him, and he surely knows it’s in his best interests to work with someone like Lewis rather than against him, with them at different points in their career – there’s a lot George can learn from a