Lewis Hamilton’s former engineer explains why he’s not as ‘mature’ as George Russell and Nico Rosberg

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When Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, he went up against his childhood friend Nico Rosberg. Rosberg had been with the team since they returned to F1 in 2010, so he had an inherent advantage.

But Hamilton prevailed during their first title battle in the 2014 season, sealing glory at the double-points season finale in Abu Dhabi. He followed that up with a comfortable triumph a year later.

Capitalising on some unreliability for his teammate and outperforming him at crucial moments, Rosberg won his one and only championship in 2016 before retiring. After relations between their two drivers broke down, the arrival of Valtteri Bottas brought relief.

Bottas was rarely able to challenge Hamilton, but in a sense that was a good thing. He carried out the second driver role well, collecting nearly 60 podiums as the Briton rattled off four straight titles between 2017 and 2020.

At the end of 2021, Mercedes decided to part ways with the Finn. It was time to promote their academy driver George Russell, who had been consistently impressive in a three-year stint at backmarkers Williams.

Russell immediately beat Hamilton at the start of F1’s ground-effect era before the seven-time world champion struck back in 2023. The former McLaren man is 34 points ahead with 10 races to go this year, but that’s largely down to Russell’s retirement at Silverstone and disqualification in Belgium.

Lewis Hamilton doesn’t have same grasp on data as George Russell

Many would argue that, in terms of pure performance, Russell has been the marginally better Mercedes driver over the first 14 races as a whole. And one of the reasons for that may be his superior use of data.

According to Philipp Brandle, a former aerodynamics engineer at Brackley, he has an edge over Hamilton in this area. The same applied for Rosberg.

Hamilton offsets that advantage with his ‘feel’ for the car, and if he does lack ‘maturity’, it certainly hasn’t hurt him much in his career. He’s the most successful driver in F1 history, having inherited a 105th career win at Spa.

“What sets Lewis apart is simply his incredible feel for the car,” Brandle told Motorsport-Total. “I would say that in terms of data and technology, he is perhaps not as mature as other drivers, such as Nico Rosberg or now perhaps George Russell.”

Hamilton’s primary engineer during his time at Mercedes has been Peter Bonnington, the voice on the team radio for the last 11 years. However, Bonnington will now work with Kimi Antonelli rather than moving to Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton jokingly mocks former teammate Fernando Alonso

Overall, Hamilton has an excellent track record against some elite-level teammates. He was too good for Heikki Kovalainen and Bottas, but the rest of his partners have been able to challenge him.

He’s on course to prevail in two of his three seasons alongside Russell, just as he did against Jenson Button. Rosberg bowed out on a high at Mercedes but Hamilton was demonstrably faster overall.

Perhaps most impressively of all, he matched the points tally of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in his rookie season. It was a relationship that only lasted one year but it was a glimpse into his potential.

Now, one is competing for wins while the other scraps in the midfield. Hamilton recently mocked Alonso, suggesting an image of him standing on the podium looked like a mistake.