(Motorsport) Seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has expressed his confidence that he and teammate George Russell will be able to maintain a strong working relationship in the 2023 season. Russell has had an impressive debut season at Mercedes, getting his first Grand Prix victory at Sao Paulo last week, moving 25 points clear of Hamilton in the Drivers Standing with just one race to go. However, the two drivers have maintained an amicable relationship, largely due to the respect that Hamilton commands through his achievements and Russell’s debut season at Mercedes, along with the fact that the team have struggled this season and the focus has been on improvement rather than challenging for titles.

Speaking after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton said “I'm a lot older and I've been with the team so long. So managing whatever challenges we come up with moving forward, we've been through so much that I don't think it's going to be a problem. I've seen what he (Russell) did at Williams. I think naturally you have to say it's impressive what he's done this year, the consistency he's had, how he's arrived and just hit the ground running. It's not like he arrived in a completely brand new team. The previous couple of years he was sitting right behind me watching the work that I was doing with the engineers, with Ricky (who), who is now his number one. It's been super easy to blend in. He uses my steering wheel, and he's obviously got to do the test days prior to the year, so I think he's just blended in perfectly and he's been a positive force in the team. He's helped keep the equilibrium in the team, in terms of the working relationship I think it's strong." 

If Hamilton doesn’t win the race in Abu Dhabi, it would be the first time in his career that the seven time World Champion will end the season without a single win. Speaking about his season with Mercedes, Russell said “In some ways I've felt like a bit of a rookie this year because the level at which this team operates on is a level that I've never experienced before, and I'm talking about things that I'd never even heard of in F1 before. That took me some time to learn and understand how to get the most out of the team, out of the car. The capability within this team is huge and the potential is huge, and learning to use all the resources at our disposal to bring more performance, is a lot more than I've ever been used to and it took me a little bit of a while to wrap my head around that." 

Also read: Sao Paulo GP: Russell wins first race while Hamilton finishes second