Ahead of the Spanish GP, Mercedes showed an united front following online criticism and abuse George Russell had to face after the fight with his teammate Lewis Hamilton for the final podium position at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve almost two weeks ago.
Hamilton, in his last season with Mercedes, highlighted the importance of receiving positive energy from the fans following a very encouraging weekend for the squad in Canada thanks to their recent updates, dismissing suggestions he’s not getting equal opportunities.
“Yeah, I think they know that we’re — if you look over the years — we’ve always been a strong team and worked really hard together. I think it’s easy to get emotional.
“We need support, not negativity.”
The seven times World Champion went on to praise his teammate and the job he’s been doing this year. Russell leads 8-1 in qualifying and in points, starting on pole and finishing P3 last time out in Canada.
“I wasn’t actually aware that George was experiencing negativity. George has done nothing but his best every single weekend and has delivered for the team, so he can’t be faulted at all.
“Of course, there can always be things done better within the team, and that comes through conversation and through communication, and that’s something that we’re consistently working on. But we’re all in the same boat.
“We’re all working hard together. We all want to finish on a high. I feel like we owe that to long-term relationship that we have,” concluded the 39-year-old
Rumors of a car disparity between him and the 2022 São Paulo GP winner added to the fire of online abuse. However, Russell wasn’t too fazed by the hate received, admitting to not giving too much attention or energy to social media.
“I personally don’t look on Instagram or Twitter, to be honest. I still sort of control my own account, so I’ve got my team and all of the content that goes out is through me and captions, everything. It’s all of my messaging, but I just… I think social media is a really double-edged sword. “
While reckoning the significance of some of its functions, such as spreading information as well as fun and positive content, the British driver discussed the challenges that athletes face with so many online abuse going on every single day.
“There’s certainly funny things that you see on social media and it keeps you up to date with so much, but then on the flip side, it’s not just myself, but everybody in real life, there seems to be negativity pointed towards everyone.
“Like Lewis said, you want to feel their support and not giving out negativity to others. So, as I said, it’s not something I’ve seen, I’ve heard about it. Of course, it’s never nice to hear this stuff, but that’s unfortunately the world we live in at the moment and any person in the public eye is facing it.”
