The F1 2024 season marked Hamilton and Russell’s third and final year together as Mercedes team-mates before the seven-time World Champion left for pastures red, having signed a multi-year agreement with Ferrari from F1 2025.
It also marked the first time that Russell comprehensively beat his compatriot.
Although he did outscore Hamilton in 2022, their first year together, last season Russell clinched the trifecta as he beat Hamilton in the points in their head-to-head race as well as in the qualifying battle.
It was only the second time in Hamilton’s 18 years on the grid that a team-mate got the better of him in qualifying after Nico Rosberg went 12-7 up in 2014 but fell behind Hamilton on grand prix Sundays.
“The results speak for themselves,” Russell told the BBC. “And I don’t have anything I need to prove or show.
“I am proud of the results I’ve achieved going up against somebody like Lewis.
“At the end of 2021, statistically and in terms of perception, Lewis was the greatest of all time.
“And I’ve had three years against the greatest of all time and I finished ahead of him two out of the three years I had as team-mates. And finished ahead more times in quality and more times in the race.
“If this was a different time or a different era, if you finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton, you’re a World Champion.”
It has the 27-year-old declaring there will come a time when he’s fighting for the title himself and potentially joining Hamilton on Formula 1’s list of World Champions.
“I know my time will come,” Russell said. “And I’ve just got to ensure that I keep on performing. And whether it’s this year or next year, it’ll come.
“And if I keep delivering those results, as I did over these last three years against the best driver of all time, I believe I will get myself in the fight and hopefully a World Championship to my name.”
Overall, Russell and Hamilton ended their three years together having both scored 689 points with Russell coming out on top in two of the three years. He won three grands prix to Hamilton’s two.
Russell’s Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the Briton is ready to challenge for a first World Championship.
“George has it all that you need to be a World Champion,” he told Sky F1 as the Briton stepped up into a leadership role with rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli his new team-mate.
“He has developed and matured and that is clearly something that Kimi is going to benefit. And for George, Kimi has raw speed and talent. We wouldn’t have taken him otherwise.
“So these two are going to push each other and that’s good.”
