Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s sabotage theory as F1 icon warned | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton faces one of the most difficult tests of his career after joining forces with Charles Leclerc in Ferrari. The seven -time world champion is putting his feet under the table with the Italian team after one of the biggest pilot movements in the history of F1.

The way in which Hamilton is shaped to the Leclerc demon qualifier will be one of the most important frames of the 2025 season, which begins in Australia next month. The 40 -year -old suffered a poor 2024 campaign when he was generally the second best for Mercedes Teammate George Russell.

While his career rhythm was close, Russell dominated Hamilton in the classification, with direct statistics from 19-5 in his favor. That led to suggestions that the couple was not receiving the same treatment. More realistic, the unilateral record suggests that Hamilton’s rhythm on a return has retreated, a theory that will seek to discredit in 2025.

Sabotage theory

Russell’s domination at the qualification last year led to Hamilton himself who Mercedes They were not giving the same team. Often last year, Hamilton seemed strong in practice, just to fall short in the qualification.

Speaking after the qualification in Monaco, where Russell received an improved front wing, Hamilton said: “I have been conducting the same during yesterday (in practice) and today and the car was working quite well.

“The small difference between the two cars is that George has the improved front wing, so he created a performance difference, particularly in high speed. But for some reason, when we got to qualify, I had no more.

“I expect it now, every time I enter the qualification, I know that I will lose a couple of tenths. I do not anticipate being ahead of George in the qualification this year. “

Russell returns

Russell did not accept Hamilton’s suggestion of unequal treatment when they were put. He told Channel 4: “I think they were probably comments in the heat of the moment because he knows very well that we received the same treatment. Lewis is a winner and, of course, these years have been frustrating for all of us, but especially for him. “

Awkward reaction

Hamilton’s comments led Russell to receive a violent reaction on social networks, which led to the F1 icon to appeal the positivity between his and Mercedes‘Fansbase. Hamilton said: “I think it’s easy to get excited.

“I think we need support, not negativity, and I didn’t really know that George was experiencing negativity. George has done nothing more than his best moment every weekend and is delivering for the team, so he cannot be criticized at all.

“Of course, you can always do better things within the team, and that comes through conversation, through communication, and that is something we are constantly working on.”

Rosberg weighs

The previous teammate who beat Hamilton was Nico Rosberg, with the couple fighting on and off the track while fighting for the title between 2014 and 2016. The German, who took the crown of 2016 before retiring immediately, dismissed any suggestion of bias after Hamilton brought the curtain in his Mercedes Race with a strong performance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that ends the season, which saw him catching and overcoming Russell in the last round.

Rosberg told Sky Sports F1: “I’m quite sure that they didn’t favor George. One of the best moments to see what was Toto WolffThe comment in the race, when Lewis left the box and was 14 seconds behind George.

“He said: ‘Then, how many seconds?’ And Bono (Pete Bonnington, Hamilton racing engineer) said 14. And Lewis said: ‘Geez, that’s far on the road.’ And Toto came to the radio and said: ‘You can do this, Lewis’.

“This is talking about teammates! ‘Oh, Lewis, you can do this!’ If I were George and listened again, I would be like, ‘Toto, hey, what about that? You should be neutral here. ‘

“That is because they were under a lot of pressure, the team, because many fans, every time Lewis is beaten by George, many fans are like, Oh, this is sabotage ‘.

Ferrari warning

Despite claiming more than 100 positions in Pole during his illustrious career, the qualification has never been its strength, according to Bull Red Helmut Marko Advisor, a close confidant of Max Verstappen.

The Austrian has noticed that they do not rule out Hamilton. Marko said Per Oe24: “I would be careful with that. If Hamilton is motivated, he can continue where he left him in 2021. The race to catch up that he delivered at that time was impressive. ”

However, Marko says that Hamilton must solve his recent qualification problems. He added: “However, the Ferrari It has to be competitive. And Hamilton has to qualify correctly. That was never his strength. “

Early signs

While official tests begin in Bahrain on Wednesday, F1 teams have been allowed to shake their new cars. On Wednesday, Hamilton and Leclerc ran the new SF-25 for the first time in FerrariThe Fioran test track.

While times are irrelevant at this time of year, the fastest time of Leclerc was 0.8 seconds faster than Hamilton’s. Leclerc’s time of 56,060 seconds was only slower than Michael Schumacher’s lap record, established in 2004.