Hamilton gave me crucial racing advice – and I want to make him regret it, jokes Russell

George Russell has revealed Lewis Hamilton once gave him some invaluable driving advice – but now that he is racing against the world champion in F1, he’s hoping he will one day be able to use that very knowledge to beat the Mercedes star on track.

Heading for his second season with Williams alongside former F2 rival Nicholas Latifi, Russell was asked on a Sky Sports F1 livestream whether any F1 drivers had given him pivotal advice.

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He hesitated for a moment, then replied: “I actually had a little advice from Lewis [Hamilton] about two years ago when I was racing in F2.”

Russell, of course, won that 2018 F2 season over runner-up Lando Norris – now at McLaren – Red Bull’s Alex Albon and Williams team mate Latifi. And now, he has Hamilton in his sights…

“It made me think how to get a bit more out of it [the car]. I hope I can make him regret giving me that advice one day,” he quipped.

Hamilton’s wisdom must have proved extremely valuable to Russell as the racer didn’t want to give away any details about what the six-time champ told him.

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“It was in a debrief, and I was struggling a little bit with something and I was talking to the engineers, and he gave me some advice from the driving side, mainly about the tyres and how to try and get more out of them.”

“I’m not going to say [what it is] here, but that was a little thing that helped me find a little bit extra, what I was missing at the start of my F2 career, and that’s actually pushed forward into F1 as well and actually benefitted me as I’ve moved into F1 and that piece of information triggered something in my mind,” explained Russell.

Now ready for his second F1 season, Russell admitted recently that he was somewhat jealous of other drivers making moves to more competitive teams. But the youngster is biding his time for a move to a championship-worthy car as Williams hope to bounce back in 2020, having finished last in the table in 2019.

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