George Russell receives brutal label compared to ‘class act’ Lewis Hamilton

George Russell was branded the “messy second driver” in Austin by F1 pundit Peter Windsor, while Lewis Hamilton “was Lewis again”.

Mercedes delivered a far-improved showing at the United States Grand Prix with their upgraded W14, though it was Hamilton displaying the step up in performance.

While Russell did not play a part in the battles for pole or victory on that sprint weekend, Hamilton did, the seven-time champion falling just two seconds short of Red Bull’s US Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen, who was feeling the pain of nursing a brake issue.

Lewis Hamilton “class act”, George Russell “messy second driver”

Hamilton would be disqualified after the race, along with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, due to excessive plank wear on their respective Mercedes and Ferrari challengers, though the pace on show in Austin, which Mercedes boss Toto Wolff felt made them the “fastest” out there, has given the team and Hamilton a timely boost in their Formula 1 recovery mission.

However, it was only Hamilton receiving praise on the driver front from former Ferrari and Williams team manager Windsor.

PlanetF1.com recommends

F1 2023: Head-to-head qualifying and race stats between team-mates

F1 driver contracts: What is the current contract status of every driver on the 2023 grid?

“A word about Lewis Hamilton,” Windsor began on his latest YouTube stream, “because he made the point after the race of saying how low he had felt after Qatar, because we heard him on the radio in Qatar saying, ‘I can’t believe my team-mate has done this to me’ [after Hamilton and Russell collided at the start]. But quite clearly it was Lewis’ fault.

“And as we’ve been saying, since Abu Dhabi ’21 really, this has been an incredibly difficult time for Lewis because he hasn’t got a race-winning car, he’s often elbows out with his team-mate for sure for fifth place or whatever it is, and not being Lewis Hamilton doing what he’s been doing most of his life.

“And yet he’s driven incredibly well, by and large. Qatar was obviously a glitch, but he’s driven pretty well, very well, considering that he’s a seven times champion, doesn’t really need to be doing this anyway.

“And I think he made the point that Austin was a really big race for him because he was Lewis again and he did everything he possibly could and it worked. And throughout the weekend he’s been a strong force and he looked good.

“George has been a bit of a messy second driver this weekend with lots of track limits penalties and things like that and Lewis looked like a real class act.

“Max Verstappen, for sure, was concerned in those last couple of laps of the Grand Prix.”

Hamilton’s disqualification means he is now 39 points behind Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez and that P2 spot in the Drivers’ Championship.

Read next: Toto Wolff urged to remember key ‘focus’ in Hamilton/Russell rivalry at Mercedes