No one to cheer for Lewis: Signs of discord between Mercedes' Hamilton and Russell?

Are there cracks in the Mercedes-AMG armour? On face value, no. But when you tear back the layers, there are possible hints that something is amiss at the once-dominant Formula 1 team.

It's not just that the team's car, the W14, is way off the pace, but something is, well, offish about its drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russel, and it's been getting progressively worse in 2023.

To further compound matters, Hamilton was left wondering where his team was as he celebrated finishing second on the podium in last Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. Like with Valtteri Bottas winning in Russia 2020, Hamilton did not have the team with him to cheer at the achievement as he got out of the car.

Videos surfaced of the seven-time Formula 1 Drivers' champion asking, "Where the f*@$ is my team?"

Could this be signs of the beginning of the end? Has Russell's arrival to the team upset the natural order within the Silver Arrows?

“Where the fuck is my team” ?? pic.twitter.com/XTWpEP1VkU

Russell understands bad cars

For most of his F1 career, Hamilton has been in the pouncing seats of competitive F1 cars. Bar the 2009 McLaren-Mercedes, he has never had to struggle. And even that car returned to a competitive level in the second half of that season.

On the other hand, Russell, since joining the sport with Williams in 2019, has had to contend with the slowest car on the grid. So, when he joined Mercedes-AMG at the start of 2022, he could extract the maximum performance from the underwhelming W13 - something Hamilton struggled with throughout the year.

READ: OPINION | Lewis in Red? Mercedes' struggles could ignite a shock switch to Ferrari for Hamilton

Russell gifted the team its only win in 2022, in Brazil, with Hamilton coming second in that race.