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Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve believes George Russell’s challenging season was down to Lewis Hamilton taking things up a gear – and that he is now the No 2 behind his more experienced compatriot.<\/p>\n
Russell had won the intra-Mercedes battle in his first season with the Brackley-based outfit but was well beaten this year as Hamilton registered an impressive third-place finish in the Drivers’ World Championship, some 59 points ahead of his team-mate.<\/p>\n
The ex-Williams star admitted that he had had a ‘scrappy’ season having struggled to find any consistency and finished the campaign with only two podiums to his name – four fewer than Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Villeneuve was left ‘surprised’ by the huge margin that separated the two Mercedes drivers this season given Russell had seemingly established himself as the No 1 last year. However, he believes Russell’s life has been made harder this season after Hamilton finally recovered from the heartbreak of having the 2021 world title ripped away.<\/p>\n
Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive F1 news.<\/strong><\/p>\n Must read… <\/strong> Christian Horner confirms Lewis Hamilton’s Max Verstappen suspicions[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cLast year, he just came in as a rookie in the team. The new boy coming from Williams. All he had to do was beat Lewis, he didn\u2019t have to focus too much on going for the wins. So it was a lot easier for him,” he said of Russell to Planet F1.<\/p>\n \u201cLewis had to react to having lost a championship the year before and, suddenly, not being in the car that can win easily. I think that got to him, it took him time to react. And that made life easy for George.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year, it\u2019s been a little bit the opposite, because Lewis came back realising that he has to work like he used to work at the beginning of his career. And that\u2019s changed the balance a bit. George came into the scene thinking, \u2018OK, now I\u2019m ahead of Lewis, I can fight, I\u2019m one of the winners. That\u2019s changed his mindset as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong>
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