George Russell leaps to Lewis Hamilton’s defence after “already there” criticism

George Russell has defended Lewis Hamilton after David Coulthard suggested that the seven-time world champion was already focusing on Ferrari.

Hamilton’s 12-year tenure with Mercedes will come to an end in December as he joins Ferrari for 2025.

The decision to join Ferrari seems to have been the right one given the two teams’ contrasting fortunes in the opening three rounds.

Ferrari stormed to a 1-2 finish in the Australian Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz taking the victory.

On the other hand, Mercedes suffered a double DNF, making it their worst start to a season in well over a decade.

Hamilton has been generally out-performed by Russell, losing out in all three qualifying sessions.

As a result, Coulthard criticised Hamilton: "He's just not been settled with this car and you can tell, you know, George is just honing the lap time right now and you can feel that Lewis is on the back foot.

"What we do know though, if he does find a window of performance, then you know he will deliver. But right now, it's looking like his decision to head off to Ferrari, mentally, he is already there."

However, Russell has defended his current teammate, insisting “nothing has changed” despite the Ferrari news.

"I think since Lewis' news, I think Lewis has been incredibly professional with the team and the working relationship with everybody within Mercedes is like nothing has changed whatsoever,” Russell said.

"And the team have been so great. They've given us both equal opportunities. It's always been that from the outset. And whenever upgrades are bringing [sic] to the car, it's going to both of us at the same time, whereas other teams they go one before the other.

"And that’s always the way at Mercedes. They want to give both drivers the best chance of achieving the best results and then going into next year, no matter who my team-mate is going to be, that will still continue to be the same."