Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes George Russell is doing a better job at Mercedes than team-mate Lewis Hamilton because of the experience he has had battling quicker cars, whereas Hamilton has had the luxury of always being in the quicker car.
Although both Hamilton and Russell have finished on the podium this season, Russell has enjoyed a much better run of results and sits fourth in the championship, with Hamilton only seventh.
The Mercedes W13 has lacked outright pace thanks to extreme porpoising, which has forced Mercedes to experiment with its setup. Montoya believes that is also a contributing factor to Russell’s better form as the two cars are running varied setups to try and combat the issue.
“The focus, at the team, at the moment, they’re not racing each other at all,” he told VegasInsider. “They’re just trying to figure out the car. And I bet you they’re trying different setups and different things.
![Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri [McLaren] celebrate their 1-2 finish at the 2025 F1 Austrian GP](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Lando-Norris-Oscar-Piastri-McLaren-F1-2025-1-120x86.webp)
“If they struggle on a weekend and it’s terrible, they’ll be like, ‘okay, we move on to the next one.'”
Montoya also believes Russell’s experience at the back of the field with Williams is helping him to overcome some of the problems he and the team are facing.
“Lewis is struggling and people are like – ‘it really shows it was just the car, look how good George is’.
“I’m a big fan of George, I really like Lewis as well. I think the biggest difference is that you got to remember, George has been in Williams for the past three-four seasons. So, he’s been in the melee every weekend. Like he is ‘traffic, traffic’ and racing people all day.
“And Lewis, the last seven-eight seasons, he’s been cruising by himself every weekend. He hasn’t really raced people because when he gets to lap them, everybody needs to get out of the way.
“All of a sudden he’s stuck in traffic and it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you don’t practice it, it’s hard.”
However it something Montoya believes Hamilton will get on top of; “It doesn’t mean he’s [Hamilton] worse, it’s just going to take him more time to figure it out.
“Did he forget how to drive? No, that doesn’t happen. You don’t forget overnight. He’s just not happy with the car.”
![Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri [McLaren] celebrate their 1-2 finish at the 2025 F1 Austrian GP](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Lando-Norris-Oscar-Piastri-McLaren-F1-2025-1-350x250.webp)
![Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri [McLaren] celebrate their 1-2 finish at the 2025 F1 Austrian GP](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Lando-Norris-Oscar-Piastri-McLaren-F1-2025-1-360x180.webp)
So what is he saying here? Has Hamilton suddenly forgotten how to drive? Is Russell’s experience in slower cars suddenly made him faster than Ham? They are in the same car, so what accounts for the disparity? Seasons only 4 races old.😂😳
I can understand Montoya’s view. Russell having more recent experience battling faster cars in a wolf pack makes sense. He may be more used to racing and defending at the same time and for longer periods of time and without any advantage to lean on. Makes sense.
Montoya makes zero sense. Both cars have different setups to experiment . Maybe Lewis was not on par with George and just that luck. Merc or Lewis ain’t concerned with George leading Lewis. The point is the car is garbage and needs to be fixed. Magnussen, Bottas, Ocon , Stroll have beaten Lewis this season so now they are better drivers? Nothing to see here. When Merc fixes the car then let the season begin for Merc
He makes perfect sense. Hamilton has been in a dominant car for 8 years now, and only during a few of those years did he ever have to actually race for first position, and during none of those years did he ever have to fight amongst groups of cars. Hamilton has forgotten how to race and is a far cry from the guy we used to see battling for wins in 2007 and 2008.
When Red Bull were winning championships Hamilton used to complain Vettel was only winning because of the car. Yet, when Hamilton was winning, he and his fans made it all about him. Well, guess what, without having the only car capable of winning the title, and Bottas the carpet in the other one, he’s nowhere. Utterly predictable.
Funnily enough Hamilton is now being exposed the way Vettel was in 2014, and they are both constantly causing trouble off-track together to distract people from their lack of actual driving skills.