Lewis Hamilton 'problem' highlighted with George Russell comparison

Former F1 driver Thierry Boutsen has pointed to a similar “problem” between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Hamilton has enjoyed a strong run of form this year, scoring a grand prix victory in Spain and a scattering of podiums to put himself second in the drivers' standings at the summer break.

It marks a considerable jump forward in form compared to his maiden season with Ferrari in 2025, during which he faced frequent challenges.

This year at his old team, George Russell has run into various issues of his own, which have put considerable doubt on his quest to win a maiden title.

Boutsen thinks the problems the two have faced in recent years are comparable.

“Lewis is Lewis, and he deserves to be on top. He’s been on top all his life, and then he suffered last year,” Boutsen told F1.

“Lewis had the same problem as George last year… self-confidence, the car not going very well, and the addition of all these details made it look bad, very bad, but Lewis is still Lewis. 

“As soon as the car gets better, he makes it, and he won the race in Barcelona. I was very happy for him.

Boutsen backed Russell to bounce back from the period of adversity and use the difficult period to better himself. 

“Niki Lauda said that you never learn anything from winning,” he said.

“You learn a lot when you lose, because there’s a lot of things that you need to improve, so you work and work and work to improve. Sometimes winning is not [possible]. 

“Then it’s time to think about what happened, analyse yourself, analyse the problems of the car, analyse the problems with the team, the relationship with the team. It’s very complex. 

“Once you get over that, you win again. You can’t win all the time – there are too many people around you for that!”