George Russell has ‘knocked Lewis Hamilton off his perch’, claims Eddie Jordan
Russell has finished in the top five at every race this season and is 34 points ahead of Mercedes team-mate Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship
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Your support makes all the difference.George Russell has knocked Lewis Hamilton off his perch and is now “top dog” at Mercedes F1, according to former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan.
In his rookie season with the Silver Arrows, Russell has consistently guided the W13 to respectable finishes, ending every race so far in the top five - the only driver in the sport to do so.
By contrast, seven-time world champion Hamilton has struggled to cope with an under-performing car and his third place at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix is the only race in which he’s finished above his teammate.
Those results mean Russell is fourth in the drivers’ standings - 34 points ahead of his more illustrious fellow Brit in sixth - and Jordan is adamant there has been a changing of the guard since the younger man joined Mercedes from Williams.
“Absolutely. I think the big surprise is, everybody globally, in Formula 1 context, thinks that Lewis Hamilton is top dog,” Jordan said when asked if Russell had prove he deserved his promotion in the off-season.
“But he’s no longer top dog, not even in that team because Russell has taken his perch away.
“And I think it’s very interesting to watch and I want to see how Lewis is going to overcome that.”
Completing writing off the driver who owns or co-owns the majority of all-time records in F1 is a brave move and former driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes Russell still has a lot to learn from his team-mate.
“I think George, on one-lap pace, is doing a much better job than Lewis – he’s getting more out of the car on one lap,” said Montoya during the ‘Any Driven Monday’ programme on Sky F1.
“When Lewis is on his A-game, he’s hard. I think George can do a job on one lap but he’s got a lot to learn from Lewis on race pace. Same as when Valtteri [Bottas] was there, the pace of Lewis in the races was incredible.”
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