When George Russell signed for Mercedes after three seasons toiling away for Williams, he would have hoped to enjoy more frequent success by the midpoint of his third season with the team than he has.
But that is no reflection on Russell’s abilities or efforts as a Mercedes driver. After two lost years struggling to get to grips with F1’s newest regulations, a change of aerodynamic concept for 2024 would hopefully thrust the former champions right back into the fight for wins once more.As the year has progressed, Mercedes has slowly built themselves back to where they have wanted to be for so long. And Russell has been a major part of why his team are such a force at the front once again.
No matter how fast the W15 has been during the season, Russell has been one of the most impressively consistent drivers in the field over the first half of the year. He has only failed to reach Q3 once out of 14 attempts – giving him a better record than team mate Lewis Hamilton, both Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr, as well as Sergio Perez. His qualifying record against Hamilton has been especially impressive, currently sitting 10-4 up on his illustrious team mate at the summer break.
Russell was also responsible for earning most of Mercedes’ points early on in the season, out-scoring Hamilton by 33 points to 19 over the first five rounds of the championship. Although he did not grab headlines with any of his results early on, Russell was quietly getting on with his job, picking up points and ensuring Mercedes was almost always finishing where they deserved to be. The only standout exception was Miami, where he lost several places on the opening lap of both the sprint race and the grand prix, finishing behind Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda.
As Mercedes started to get to grips with their radically different new car, Russell became more conspicuous at the sharp end of the grid. By the time the team arrived in Canada, Mercedes had begun to extract serious pace from their car thanks to a series of upgrades. In a thrilling, rain-affected qualifying session, Russell secured his second pole position of his career in remarkable circumstances after setting an identical lap time to Max Verstappen. Although he couldn’t convert that into victory during a tricky race in changeable conditions, he still took his team’s first podium finish of the season in third after passing Hamilton late on.
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He put his Red Bull and McLaren rivals on notice in Spain by charging from fourth on the grid into the lead at turn one in what will likely be the most memorable start of the year, but couldn’t turn that early track position into another podium. His Austrian Grand Prix weekend was especially strong, however, as he took fourth in the sprint race, then was running around ten seconds off the lead in third late in the grand prix. Although another podium would certainly have been welcome, he was more than happy to accept the lead when Verstappen and Norris collided and handed him a surprise and long overdue second grand prix victory to end Mercedes’ win drought.
Now that Mercedes were contenders again, Russell would return to pole position at his home grand prix, beating Hamilton by just under two tenths of a second to delight his team and the British fans. However, any dreams Russell had of a home victory were shattered when he was called in to retire due to a water leak just after half distance, then had to watch as his team mate won instead.
George Russell
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 1 (x2) | 17 |
| GP finish | 1 | 17 |
| Points | 116 | |
Any hopes of competing for victory for a third successive round in Hungary were crushed when he was eliminated from Q1 on Saturday after his team under-fuelled his car in the mixed conditions. Still, he was able to recover into the points to finish in eighth.
But after that disappointment, he appeared to have entered the summer break in the best possible style by putting in a superb drive at Spa-Francorchamps, backing himself and convincing his team to let him stay out on a one-stop strategy while all of those around him committed to two-stops. It looked as if Hamilton, who had been leading up to that point, was sure to breeze up to him and deny him victory, but Russell held his nerve and defeated both Hamilton and Oscar Piastri to the chequered flag to take one of the most memorable victories of recent years. However, it would all come to nothing after he was disqualified after the race for his car being underweight.
Two failures to score in both of Hamilton’s victories in Britain and Belgium gave Hamilton a brutal 50-point swing in the championship and the advantage into the break, but Russell deserves to be higher than he is in the standings after his performances so far this season. Although all the focus is on who his team mate will be next season, Russell probably deserves more respect and recognition for what he is doing for Mercedes right now.
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Oople ZERO
15th August 2024, 12:37
I’m a big fan of George, but in my opinion this is WAY too high, even factorising in how solid he was at the start of the year.
Ben
15th August 2024, 13:49
+1 No way should Russell be anywhere near the top 3. Although there’s been a very strong bias in the weekly ratings for George so I can see why he’s this high.
Russell got a 6 in Hungry for getting knocked out in Q3 and finishing 8th
Hamilton got a 5 in China for getting knocked out in Q3 and finishing 9th (but also coming second in the sprint)
In Italy
Russell got a 6 for qualifying P6 and finishing P7
Hamilton got 5 for qualifying P8 but finishing P6
(so we give less points for a better race result?)
In Spain they both got 7’s even though Hamilton out qualified and finished ahead of Russell. Both drivers finished in their starting positions or 3rd and 4th, but when that happened at Monaco, Russell got a 6 and Hamilton a 5.
British GP is harder to judge and while I agree with Hamilton on an 8. Russell had dropped back to P4 and was losing ground to the top 3 when he retired. Yet still gets a 7?!
Madness.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
15th August 2024, 14:05
Agreed with everything you wrote bar the British GP. Russell got Pole Position and was right behind Hamilton when he had to retire. He was struggling initially, but mainly because he was the first car on the road to hit the damp spots. Once Hamilton passed him, it was Russell who appeared slightly faster. A 7 was definitely justified (unlike the crazy 6 in Hungary)
Edvaldo
15th August 2024, 14:28
Not right behind. Max was already between them. Unless he nailed the timing of his pits, that’s likely where he would end that race.
Ben
15th August 2024, 14:29
@roadrunner
Hamilton was P2 and matching the Mclaren pace. Russell had dropped to P4. On lap 29 Russell was 3.5 behind Max, who was 3.5 behind Hamilton. On lap 34 when he retired Russell was 5.1 behind Max who had dropped 7.0 behind Hamilton. So Russell was some 12 seconds behind Hamilton when he retired and falling back.
Yes he got pole, but it was by less than 0.1 from Hamilton and Mercedes were the strongest car in those conditions, so I’d argue that both were very evenly matched. Is that really worth a 7?
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
15th August 2024, 16:37
I had to rewatch :-)
Russell was about 1,5 seconds behind Hamilton when they both pitted on lap 27. That double stack cost him another 4 seconds and track position to Verstappen. He trailed Verstappen until his DNF on lap 34 at 1,5 to 2,5 seconds, probably held up in dirty air. He probably was slower than Hamilton at this point, but not by much.
The 5.1 seconds you refer to is fairly unrepresentative because he already lost 3 seconds in one sector to Verstappen due to his problems.
So yes, given the fact he outqualified Hamilton and was not that much slower in the race I think a difference of one grade between him and Hamilton is appropriate.
SteveP
15th August 2024, 21:32
@roadrunner
As per info from the team, Russell had no performance drop.
As per info from George, he felt no performance drop
The team noted a pressure loss in the cooling system and pulled him in before the increasing temperature did any PU damage
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
15th August 2024, 23:03
@Steve
Yeah, he hadn’t. But he must have gotten the call to retire the car at some point. That likely happened somewhere on lap 34 and therefore it’s also more than likely the reason why the gap increased from 2.4 to 5.1 seconds when Russell cruised back into the pits.
slowmo (@slowmo)
15th August 2024, 14:20
All you’ve noted is why I’ve given up commenting on the race ratings, the bias on Alonso ratings last year was pretty bizarre last year too where he was getting 7’s and 8’s for delivering what that car was capable of. That combined with the general ridiculous amount of importance they’re placing on practice sessions and out qualifying teammates. Who cares if your teammate is faster in qualifying if he drops behind you in the race because his qualifying setup has no race pace. By all means critique cases where there is more than 3 tenths between teammates but I’ve seen points knocked off drivers for qualification gaps of a tenth!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th August 2024, 20:58
I don’t think it’s alonso bias, but when there is such a bad team mate it’s hard to assess how good the better one is, albon had something like that last year vs sargeant.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th August 2024, 12:41
Just as I assumed, & for the last two, I predict NOR for 2nd & VER 1st based on overall season consistency.
Simon
15th August 2024, 18:04
Thank you, Captain Obvious/Mystic Meg/whatever
Nick T.
16th August 2024, 5:10
Two choke artists in the top 3 is cute though. Would anyone, beside those who hate them, really want either of these guys instead of Alonso or Hamilton in a WDC capable car? We see what a hash Norris is making of it already.
REMGoat
15th August 2024, 13:37
Russell at P3 in the rankings whilst Hamilton is P8 is so far off. Hamilton has double the number of wins, double the number of podiums, and currently leads Russell by 34 points in the championship.
People might say “Russell has got so unlucky compared to Hamilton”. That’s not neccessarily true and even if it were, he wouldn’t be outscoring LH. He DNF’d from P4 in Silverstone, his call on the one-stop strategy in Spa got him disqualified and it’s important to remember that he had a lot of fortune with the VER-NOR crash to get the win in Austria.
You also might say that Russell is smashing Hamilton in qualifying. Not true, the H2H paints a worse picture of their actual single lap pace disparity. The gap is actually only 0.03s in Russell’s favour.
It’s fair to feel that RUS has been the slightly better Mercedes driver but him being 5 places above HAM is just wrong.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th August 2024, 21:01
It’s not the 1-stop that got him dq’d, it’s a mistake of the team, 1-stops have always been done and usually don’t cause disqualifications.
If you consider this, russell would be ahead of hamilton in the standings.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th August 2024, 21:01
As for austria, it’s not like hamilton didn’t gain any points from the norris-verstappen crash.
Nick T.
16th August 2024, 5:26
Neither Lewis nor George deserve to be in the top 3. Norris doesn’t either. But that’s just the problem. It is why we need to use a non-top 20 system, especially when only one driver on the entire grid is having an objectively great season.
MichaelN
15th August 2024, 14:19
A bit high for someone whose average finishing position is around Pérez’ spot.
Russell has done well enough, probably better than Hamilton in the earlier races. But there aren’t really any stand-out performances; he lost places in Bahrain, finished one spot up in Saudi Arabia, would have finished where he started had he not been baited into a crash by Alonso, recovered a few spots from qualifying in Japan and China where he qualified in the back of the top 10, lost a spot in Miami and at Imola, lost places in Canada, and finished in his starting spot in Spain, and would have in Austria had Norris and Verstappen not had their tangle. He dropped from the lead in England, recovered well enough in Hungary but shouldn’t have started 17th, and then had an inspired race in Belgium that was undone by driving an illegal car.
I’m not really seeing where this becomes a ‘top three driver’ story. But it’s not just Russell, to be fair. Nobody has really outshone their car this year. It seems everything is now so well prepared, simulated, and then run to a set program (also to nurse tyres), that we can’t really expect anything else. Verstappen’s wins following that Miami upgrade for McLaren might be the only exception, but that is as much a story of Norris failing to capitalize on opportunities as it was Verstappen doing something extraordinary.
I’ve said this before, but I’m getting a very early-2000s vibe from the current grid. Lots of decent enough drivers, but I wouldn’t bet on any of them in a season long battle against Verstappen or Hamilton.
notagrumpyfan
15th August 2024, 17:44
His average finishing spot is much closer to Leclerc’s and Piastri’s.
The closest to Perez is actually Hamilton. He is even behind him, but that just proves that average finishing spot only doesn’t indicate driver performance very well ;)
uba
16th August 2024, 2:27
We’re marking him down for losing place in Bahrain? That car had no business starting P3. The Ferrari’s were clearly faster in race trim. P5 was a great job from George. Lewis wouldn’t have done any better had he started from P3.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
15th August 2024, 14:25
Seems way too high to me. He’s eighth in the standings with one win and two podiums. I think I would have put George about 6th, after Max, both McLarens, Charles and Lewis.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 15:23
Behind Lewis?
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
15th August 2024, 17:43
I do take your point. It’s a bit of a 50/50 call. Maybe I am being swayed by Lewis’s recent upturn in form. I suspect though that this state of affairs will continue.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
15th August 2024, 14:30
as long as his agent is trying to get him a job at mclaren, and not reading polls like this, hes doing ok
Kerry Maxwell (@kerrymaxwell)
15th August 2024, 14:31
I’ve only been following the headlines for this ranking series, and while I’ve had a few “hmm?” reactions, this is the first one where I’ve laughed out loud. So effective engagement bait I guess?
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 15:25
Who would you have ahead?
SteveP
15th August 2024, 16:12
Well, Piastri for a starter.
Sainz.
Wavering on Lewis, but overall so far – yes.
Various others seem out of position too.
Leclerc is too high – the car is better than he is showing. I’m thinking that Ferrari made a mistake for 2025. Not in hiring Hamilton, but rather in which existing driver they kept.
Hulkenberg is too high, a percentage of his finish positions come from his teammate blocking the competition – illegally.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 16:22
Piastri who is 11-3 behind his teammate in quali and has finished ahead of him 5 times one in a race with team orders, the Monaco procession and Austria where Lando was ahead until the contact with Max. Hardly the same as Russell outperforming a 7 time champion.
Lewis who finished ahead of George once in the opening 9 rounds?
Sainz who went 6 races without beating Charles and has finished ahead 5 times, one when Leclerc had brake issues, one with a first corner clash for Leclerc and one with an incredibly poor strategy call from Ferrari.
Leclerc has got the best possible result for his car 8 times in 14 races – not too bad but certainly not a sackable offense.
notagrumpyfan
15th August 2024, 17:54
Piastri I could understand, but I still disagree that he has performed better overall this season.
Leclerc maybe, but he has been very inconsistent. And Sainz on average performed worse than Leclerc IMO.
Hulkenberg not, and every time I review the races so far (not just the recent ones) I get a better score for Russell than for Hamilton.
The exciting part this (half) year is that the positions P3-P12/P13 are extremely close; a lot of inconsistencies in performance for all of them. In the end it depends more on if you rate the upsides more or penalise the disappointments more.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
15th August 2024, 15:15
Will Wood ranks this way: First he makes Max No. 1, then puts the other 19 drivers’ names in a bowl (or a hat), and randomly picks them. Russell made No. 3 this time, well done George.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 15:25
He’s outperforming a 7 times Champion convincingly. He merits top 3 as far as I can see.
Bob
15th August 2024, 15:36
Out performing, But behind in the standings…… illigal car, pref treatment, Has the team going over LH data just to beat him in q sessions,, But mostly always behnd come race day…
He shuol dbe behind his team mate as per the standings in the championship.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 16:14
Bob, George is 10-4 up in quali and 7-4 up in the races.
In the first 9 rounds of the season, George was ahead 8-1 in quali and 6-2 in races, also ahead when Hamilton retired in Australia. Hamilton is ahead on points due to a DNF in Silverstone and a DSQ in Spa – not a huge amount Russell can do about either. Before Silverstone it was 111-85 in George’s favour.
Even if we look at the past 5 races – George was ahead in every session in Austria, was ahead before the strategy gamble in Spain was on pole in Britain, won on the road in Spa and was out in q1 in Hungary due to being caught out by the weather. At best Hamilton has recovered to being even with Russell following a drubbing in the opening 9 (!) races.
OldItron
15th August 2024, 19:15
I agree with placing above Lewis (although for ranking purposes, its a comparison with the 8th place driver and +5 positions is quite a lot).
Pace-wise, its fair enough to say he was quick but the strategy gamble backfired in Spain. For consistency, its also fairer to say he was slow but the strategy gamble won the race anyway in Spa (the DSQ being out of the drivers control).
oweng (@oweng)
16th August 2024, 7:07
If you’re assessing the first 14 races why would you keep referring only to the first 9?
Whoever you want to say has had the better first half of the season, you could make an argument either way, but to have 5 places between them is laughable.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
16th August 2024, 8:08
Old Tron – a good point well made.
Owen – I’ve written multiple responses below where I discuss each race. The form of the first 9 races isn’t far off Ricciardo Tsunoda – Yuki led 5-2, compared to George’s 6-2. No-one was arguing Daniel was having a good season, indeed there were calls for him to be sacked. Lewis ranked his Canadian GP drive as one of the worst in his career. We can’t just forget about these races if we’re looking for a holistic summary. You CAN’T make an argument either way for the first 9 races is my point. Of the last 5 you can but that’s not a reason to ignore the first 9 or to propel Hamilton up ahead of Russell.
It’s not laughable if there are similar quality drivers between them. Lewis is getting smashed on quali and finishing metrics but he’s not crashing every week or a million miles behind. So the drivers in between should be closely matched. There’s Oscar, who’s performing well, the Ferrari’s who are the closest matches teammates on the grid and Hulk who’s in the form of his life. Lewis certainly isn’t.
SteveP
15th August 2024, 16:20
This is the point where people start talking about the DNFs Russell had vs. Hamilton.
Lewis had one, after George shifted/turned left into the space Lewis was occupying. George had another – equipment failure, but he was always going to lose out to Lewis on that one, he’d already lost out to Max.
Loss of all points on Spa was on George – he jumped at track position advantage from a single stop attempt the moment Lewis did his second stop. Whether the weight issue was extra tyre wear, or George shedding weight overnight, or a combination, matters not.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 17:23
Lewis’ DNF in Australia was an engine failure while running behind George. I’m not sure which incident you refer to?
Perhaps George would have finished behind, perhaps he’d have gambled in the final stops, as is keeping with his ethos of tyre gambles, and won the race?
I’ve never heard of a car DSQ being blamed on the driver. The team need to build a margin in to be able to one stop – it’s hardly an impossible scenario to predict. If they told George to stay off kerbs or take Eau Rouge differently he own more responsibility but frankly otherwise it’s reaching. DSQs happen, look at Lewis in Texas.
In any event if Russell had a 33 points swing in Spa alone, so I don’t think points are a useful metric on something as contentious as a DSQ for 1.5kg.
SteveP
15th August 2024, 21:48
Brain fart in progress. Sorry.
Australia was of course George crashing with assistance from Alonso. While Lewis had PU issues early on.
So, George has Silverstone with equipment failure and Lewis has Australia, George had a crash and Lewis does not, George has a DQ from an underweight car+driver total.
The car was weighed after Q3 along with George – the total was compliant.
The car was in parc fermé overnight and lost no weight. The car + George were weighed after the race and were not compliant.
Can the whole weight loss be accounted for in tyre rubber?
grat
15th August 2024, 16:18
In the same way that Hamilton didn’t “convincingly” give back the position to Kimi at Spa in 2008, perhaps.
Hamilton has caught (and passed) Russell in the points, and so far, shows all signs of staying there. For a “mid season ranking”, it seems that the opening rounds of the season are being given far more weight in Will Wood’s rankings than the more recent races.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th August 2024, 16:36
On other hand recency bias is usually strong, so I guess he’s trying to balance for that.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 16:46
Strange reference.
Hamilton has caught on points due to a DNF and a DSQ let’s not pretend Lewis is beating George on pace. In the first 9 rounds it’s 100% George ahead. In Spain they were separated by 0.002s in quali and Lewis passed George on a contra strategy. In Austria George was ahead in all competitive sessions. In Britain he was on pole and within 5s in a wet/dry race, hardly a chasm. In Hungary Russell was out in q1 so the results are unrepresentative. In Spain, George finished ahead.
At best Lewis is back level, having been massively behind. Where has Lewis been better?
SteveP
15th August 2024, 21:57
Looking at the record, it seems they both have one equipment related DNF. 1 – 1 = 0
George is the only one with a DQ and the only one with a crash.
Hmmm? LH low qualifying is his fault, but GR low qualifying is “unrepresentative”?
I’m not arguing a case that LH has performed better, I’m arguing that GR is not worthy of a #3 in the standings. The WDC points totals do a decent job of pointing that out. Ignore LH in those standings, subtract him totally, now where does GR sit?
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
15th August 2024, 23:41
Hamilton retired from 12th with no chance of a win. Russell retired from 4th having fought for the win earlier on – the mechanical DNFs are not like for like if one driver was scoring 0 and the other could have scored 15. There’s a 33 point swing with the DSQ so 48 points straight away – Lewis is 34 ahead.
Unrepresentative in the sense that it’s not a fair comparison pace wise if someone is sat in the garage and the weather changes. It’s a bad choice, a poor decision from team and driver but not evidence that the other side of the garage was faster pace wise.
If you’re not arguing George doesn’t deserve P3 then who do you think has performed better? Championship totals are meaningless if we pick arbitrary points – one round ago there was one point in it, for the rest of the season Russell was ahead.
I was critical if Russell and fully praised Lewis at the end of season rankings pointing out that Lewis was beaten only 3 times in the last 17 rounds of 2023. But the turnaround from George is impressive and it should be acknowledged.
CP
19th August 2024, 22:52
Quite interesting how Lewis has performed against George since the email leak about the team favouring George or in strong terms, as leaked, disadvantaging Lewis aka tyre blankets temp etc. Seems post that leak things become neutral and somehow George is no longer “performing” so well.
notagrumpyfan
15th August 2024, 17:57
I’d say: ‘the same weight’.
It’s just that people with recency bias struggle with that ;)
Craig
15th August 2024, 18:24
Nice to see George actually getting some credit somewhere rather than the hate he often has to put up with.
This is one of those situations where the points table really doesn’t give a true reflection of performance.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
15th August 2024, 21:46
Agreed – he’s definitely higher than the spot in the table and possibly between 3rd and 5th with Lewis a little bit behind given his start for this season.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th August 2024, 18:52
#3 is usually a mild positive surprise but not a bizarre call. So seeing George in this position makes perfect sense. George has had a strong year and deserves credit for it. Well done, George.
Fourier hilbert
16th August 2024, 18:43
In 2022, Hamilton had far more bad luck than russell. you completely ignored this when doing the driver ratings and put russell ahead of hamilton. Now, when russell is getting more bad luck you talk about and put george ahead of hamilton in the rankings.
The bias against hamilton has always been strong with this website. I remember the days when hamilton and button were teammates, this website was so biased towards button it was unbelievable.
CP
19th August 2024, 22:46
We all know why.
Neil (@neilosjames)
15th August 2024, 21:49
I think there’s an argument for him to be ranked anywhere from P3 to P6. On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with him being P3, because being frequently ahead of Hamilton deserves more credit than being frequently ahead of [insert average team-mate’s name here].
But then, another fan might feel that Hamilton was nowhere near his best early in the season, so is being ahead of him then that much of an achievement? Maybe not. I’m in that camp, and have tended to view Russell as being often overrated in the individual race ratings… but not so much that I’d have put him below P6.
An Sionnach
15th August 2024, 22:37
You could rate the shower of them as joint number seven. That would be representative of their mixed, fumbling and only sometimes-inspired performances relative to Max.
I’m changing my rating to this.
1.Max
7. Carlos, Charles, George, Lando, Lewis, Oscar
I’ll get back to you about the others. I have to read what I had before, have a good go at myself and come up with an even worse order. I’m disappointed that their names in alphabetical order aren’t also in team order (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes). Would be perfect if it was Carlos, Charles, Banjo, Boxer, Charge!, Chewis but they messed that up, too!
An Sionnach
15th August 2024, 23:57
I’m not even getting the order of the alphabet right, so the driver order might be even more puzzling!
Carlos, Charles, Gando, Goscar, Leorge, Lewis
MacLeod (@macleod)
16th August 2024, 7:47
Lol that is not bad…. :)
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
16th August 2024, 12:59
Agree with this.
Let’s face it Lewis was at his worst ever, in the early races.
An Sionnach
15th August 2024, 22:18
Missed a lot of this. If he’s read many of the comments, Will might be so annoyed that he’ll just go ahead and put Max at number two. Even though accuracy is desirable, mirth and annoying people are also worthy pursuits. Make it happen!
MacLeod (@macleod)
16th August 2024, 7:50
If you think this is bad Max on two would explode this forum…. but Will has to keep the reputation of the site in mind (knowledgeable on F1 things) and placing Lando above Max that isn’t explainable..
An Sionnach
16th August 2024, 23:46
If it had happened I wouldn’t have gotten annoyed. I might have fallen out of my chair laughing, though. The next best drivers after Max are like the three stooges… by two!
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
16th August 2024, 12:57
I think too many are bowled over with Russell’s “consistency”. When in reality surely it’s the ‘wow’ drives – that should get more credence.
I mean he is great for his metronomic consistency. But shouldn’t great overtakes, count say 10x – especially in these days of some tracks still been difficult to overtake.
Yes of course bothering to turn up and be good every weekend, as opposed to great, is impressive – but I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of high praise guff talked about George, just because he tries so hard.
And there’s too much praise about Spa. He got disqualified because he / car was ‘underweight’. In a close race that slight increase in speed per lap, could have made all the difference. I’d agree with Will’s prasie of that raise if he’s been 10s down the road.
However, the ranking is probably about correct – which only goes to show how poor Lewis was at the early races (strange isn’t it that virtually all through his career – Lewis has been at his ‘worst’ in the opening few races) easily his worst driving ever and that includes that terrible 2011 season!!
An Sionnach
16th August 2024, 23:57
The car was so marginally underweight that it might have been fine had he gotten that extra set of tyres. That would mean his car was not underweight for much of the race, and not underweight when he took the lead. Once he was caught, Lewis had enough laps to pass him, but George was canny enough to be fast where he needed to be… and it was just very difficult to pass. The weight wouldn’t have changed this. If he was not under weight the result would have been almost identical.
Fourier hilbert
17th August 2024, 12:02
The insane bias against hamilton continues. I suggest you try to be a bit more impartial; you don’t even talk about any of George’s poor performances, instead you just talk how amazing and unlucky he is.
For the mid season rankings last year, you criticised hamilton throughout the article even though he was miles better than George.
CP
19th August 2024, 22:45
This is hilarious, site has become a bit of a joke.