Villeneuve on how Hamilton bossed Russell at Mercedes in 2023

That year, his first season at Mercedes, Russell was outstanding in a woeful Mercedes W13, relative to the W12 he never got to drive. The first concept of the new aero era, churned out by Silver Arrows engineers, bombed big time.

Nevertheless, promoted from backmarkers Williams where he shone brightly, the younger Englishman finished fourth in the 2023 F1 World Championship, scoring 35 more points than Hamilton, and Russell's maiden win in Sao Paulo, late in the game.

But this season, 38-year-old Hamilton regained the higher ground by simply outperforming 25-year-old Russell. Although neither won a race this year, prolonging Lewis' wait for a record-extending 104th GP win he did finish third in the final standings. Russell was 59 points down in eighth when the season closed in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking to PlanetF1, Villeneuve gave his take on how Hamilton raised it a notch while Russell faltered: “It’s surprising. Last year, he just came in as a rookie in the team. The new boy coming from Williams. All he had to do was beat Lewis, he didn’t have to focus too much on going for the wins. So it was a lot easier for him.

“Lewis had to react to having lost a championship the year before and, suddenly, not being in the car that can win easily. I think that got to him, it took him time to react. And that made life easy for George."

The 52-year-old Canadian continued: “This year, it’s been a little bit the opposite because Lewis came back realising that he has to work like he used to work at the beginning of his career. And that’s changed the balance a bit.

“George came into the scene thinking, ‘OK, now I’m ahead of Lewis, I can fight, I’m one of the winners. That’s changed his mindset as well," reckons Villeneuve.

Tapping into history, the 1997 F1 World Champion compared the change of 'regime' at Red Bull when Daniel Ricciardo arrived in the team only to humble their four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel in 2014: “Last year [2022], Russell’s position was the same as Ricciardo’s when he got paired with Vettel.

“All he had to do was mind his business, not care about how good the team was, just beat Vettel, whereas Vettel was trying to reinvent the wheel to go and win races, which made him go slower. That made Ricciardo look good.

"That’s the same thing that happened between Russell and Hamilton last year," Villeneuve pointed out before adding that George is "super quick" and has it in him to bounce back and reel Lewis back in.