George Russell reveals psychological trick to cope with Lewis Hamilton pressure

George Russell has revealed how advice from his psychologist helped him cope with the pressure of being Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 teammate.

Russell spent three years as Hamilton’s teammate, out-scoring the seven-time world champion in 2022 and 2024.

The 27-year-old’s final season alongside Hamilton was his most impressive, winning the qualifying head-to-head 19-5.

Russell has continued to elevate his performance, even following Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari.

The former has arguably been the best-performing driver in 2025, displaying great consistency and speed throughout the first 14 races of the campaign.

Prior to his Mercedes promotion, Russell had three years at Williams.

Russell felt he was ready to drive for Mercedes after the second season.

His astonishing stand-in display at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix backed up this.

Russell out-raced Valtteri Bottas despite limited experience behind the wheel of the Mercedes W11.

However, a tyre mix-up in the pit lane and a late-race puncture cost Russell victory on his Mercedes debut.

While Russell felt he had the speed to race Hamilton at Mercedes, he thought about the “psychological” aspect of going up against F1’s most successful driver.

Russell details psychologist chat

Upon George Russell’s arrival, Lewis Hamilton had just come off an intense title battle with Max Verstappen.

Hamilton’s end to the 2021 season was mighty, winning three of the last four races.

Had it not been for poor officiating by race director Michael Masi, Hamilton would have won the final four races, and was clearly performing at the peak of his powers.

Speaking on the Untapped podcast, Russell talked with his psychologist about dealing with being in the same team as Hamilton.

“So I was thinking about how I’m going to deal with this psychologically,” Russell explained.

“Until one day, I had a really good conversation with my psychologist about it, about how I should deal with the pressure of being his teammate.

“And I concluded that when I walk into the garage, I’m jumping into my race car, I’m putting my helmet on, I’ve put my visor down, it should not matter if my teammate in the garage next door is a seven-time World Champion, a rookie, or if there’s nobody there, because I’m in control of my own destiny.

“That’s the approach I have – it’s on me to perform.”