Teammates Closer to Verstappen
George Russell believes the new generation of F1 cars has fundamentally altered the balance of power between team-mates on the grid, singling out Max Verstappen's improved rivals at Red Bull as the clearest example.
Russell, who sits second in the drivers' championship, 81 points behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, says this season has thrown up unusual patterns when comparing team-mate battles to previous years.
"It's been a strange season when you look at the competitiveness of [Oscar] Piastri against Lando [Norris] last year, Charles [Leclerc] compared to Lewis [Hamilton], and even the dominance of Max against all of his team-mates in the previous era," said Russell.
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Hadjar and Lawson closing the gap
Russell pointed to his own struggles against Antonelli as part of a wider trend among the sport's usual benchmark drivers.
"This year, myself, Charles and Oscar are struggling much more compared to our team-mates," said Russell.
"And Max, his teammates been substantially closer to him than anybody has in the past six years"
Verstappen has again had two team-mates this season - Isack Hadjar for the first 11 grands prix, and Liam Lawson for the last three after the French driver sustained a wrist injury during the summer break whilst boxing training.
The Dutch driver currently sits sixth in the standings on 145 points, with Hadjar seventh on 71 points and Lawson ninth on 59 points, a gap far smaller than the four-time champion's usual margin over his team-mates in recent seasons.
Russell believes the shift comes down to overlapping driving styles among the current crop of frontrunners.
"We've all got pretty similar driving styles, and the drivers are performing very well this year," he remarked.
"Kimi, Lewis, and Lando have also got quite similar driving styles. So to me, it's pretty clear with this car, with these tyres, what I need to achieve.
"The trends are there, with, as I said, those drivers I just mentioned."
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