George Russell doubts Lewis Hamilton Ferrari move with ‘no way’ Mercedes theory

George Russell is convinced that there is “no way” Lewis Hamilton would have chosen to leave Mercedes for Ferrari based on the team’s current F1 2024 performance.

Hamilton announced in February that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, ending his long and successful association with Mercedes.

George Russell: ‘No way’ Lewis Hamilton would have left Mercedes of mid-2024

The British driver won six of his seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man in history to surpass 100 pole grand prix victories and pole positions, after arriving from McLaren at the start of 2013.

Hamilton’s decision to walk away from Mercedes came after he suffered two consecutive winless seasons in 2022/23 as the team struggled to adapt to F1’s ground-effect rules.

However, the W15 car has improved considerably over recent weeks with Hamilton collecting an emotional 104th career victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, ending a 945-day winless run stretching back to the penultimate race of 2021 in Saudi Arabia.

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Hamilton’s triumph came after Russell won in Austria seven days earlier to secure Mercedes’ first victory since November 2022.

Hamilton has been consistent that he does not regret his call to leave Mercedes for Ferrari next season, claiming in April that he has not once questioned his decision to join Ferrari.

However, Russell, who replaced Valtteri Bottas as Hamilton’s team-mate at the beginning of 2022, feels there is “no way he would have left” based on Mercedes’ vastly improved recent form.

And he is convinced that Mercedes are in for a productive next few years with the development of the team’s F1 2026 power unit looking promising.

He told Reuters : “I don’t think he would have left if the team was performing like this.

“No way he would have left, for sure not.

“For 2026, the PU’s looking really strong and everything we’re doing with the fuels is looking great and there’s a lot of optimism for us over the next couple of years.

“As tough as these last few years have been, it really feels like we’ve got the momentum with us now.”

Hamilton, 39, remains hopeful of lifting a record-breaking eighth World Championship in what remains of his F1 career, having been dethroned by Max Verstappen in highly controversial circumstances at the infamous 2021 title decider in Abu Dhabi.

Russell conceded that Hamilton is in need of a “change” of scenery after his long stint at Mercedes, but insisted his current team may be the place to be if he intends to keep winning races in F1.

He added: “I think everybody wants change at some point.

“He’s been here 12 years now, he’s achieved so much with the team. I think for him it’s exciting to have that change.

“But of course if the team you’re currently with are winning races and everything is looking super-great for the future, you just want to be in the fastest car possible and it doesn’t matter what colour that is.”

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