George Russell dismisses Lewis Hamilton’s favoritism suggestions by explaining why he got the upgraded front wings

In the Monaco GP qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton secured P7 while George Russell ended up in P5. Following the session, Hamilton stated that he does not anticipate out-qualifying Russell in any Grand Prix in 2024. The British driver further added that he already knew Russell would be faster in Monaco’s qualifying since he received the new front wing. This was quite a bold statement made by the seven-time world champion.

After the Monaco GP concluded, Russell was interviewed on Channel 4, where he was asked about Hamilton’s comments. He clarified that the team decided to do a coin flip to decide who gets to use the upgraded front wing. He claimed that since Hamilton had already driven the upgraded front wing in the simulator, he knew how it felt and was not too comfortable with it. As per Russell, Hamilton eventually decided to allow him to race with the upgrade.

Russell explained:

“There was one front wing this weekend [Monaco GP], and it was agreed on Tuesday we’d do a coin toss and see who got it. Lewis said he tried on the sim, he’s happy for me to use it this weekend because it doesn’t go without risk if we made a mistake in qualifying and dinged it.”Lewis Hamilton feels he would never out-qualify George Russell in 2024

Lewis Hamilton spoke about how he struggled in the Monaco GP qualifying and was out-qualified by George Russell. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said he was already aware that he would lose time in qualifying since Russell had the upgraded front wing for the race weekend. Later on, the seven-time world champion made a bold prediction that he would frequently get out-qualified by his Mercedes teammate in the 2024 F1 season:

“Once we got to Qualifying, I don’t understand. I already know automatically that I’m going to lose two-tenths [of a second] going into Qualifying. That’s definitely frustrating and something I don’t really have an answer for. I’m not driving any different. The laps were great. I’m just lacking.”

Hamilton added to his statement:

“I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying particularly this year, but we’ve just got to keep pushing, and the races are strong,”

In the Monaco GP, Lewis Hamilton ended the race P7 while George Russell secured P5 after defending against reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who finished P6.

In the 2024 drivers’ championship Hamilton stands in eighth place with 42 points, while Russell is in seventh place with 54 points.