Toto Wolff must intervene to stop Hamilton and Russell tension from boiling over
Karun Chandhok named Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as F1's strongest driver pairing – but knows a title fight could make tensions boil over.
Mercedes have a seven-time Formula 1 world champion partnered with a race-winner hotly tipped to win future titles. And both of them are tied down until at least the end of 2025 after a recent contract renewal.
Russell beat Hamilton in their first season together, though the more experienced Brit has scored far better this year. In any case, Chandhok has seen enough over the last two campaigns to form the belief that they are ideally-suited to work together.
"I believe Mercedes have the strongest driver line-up in Formula 1," the Sky Sports F1 pundit and former racer told , in an interview facilitated by OLBG. "I think it's a combination of two guys who are extremely fast but also very good at working together and as a team, harmoniously.
"It's not like Lewis and Nico [Rosberg] when it got a bit edgy. George pushes Lewis much more than Valtteri [Bottas] did, so I think in that way he makes for a better team-mate. They've got a cracking line-up, so why change?"
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It remains to be seen whether Mercedes will be able to provide Hamilton with a car capable of challenging for the championship during the length of his new contract. But, if the team can do that, Chandhok has no doubt that the 38-year-old is capable of delivering his end of the bargain.
He said: "Lewis is clearly still motivated and hungry to try to get that eighth world title. Personally, I'd like to see it. I remember growing up when Michael [Schumacher] won his seventh and thinking, 'Wow, this is so cool to be here to watch history being made'.
"I was still in Formula 3 at the time and admiring greatness. I remember watching that race at Spa in 2004 when he won his seventh title and thinking, 'Will I ever see it again in my lifetime?' It was the same when Lewis won his seventh. Honestly, it would be cool to see him win his eighth."
So far, the relationship between the Mercedes drivers has been strong. Even after flashpoints, such as Russell complaining when the team asked him to let Hamilton through at the end of Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, there has been no public sniping at one another. Whether or not that will change in a title fight remains to be seen.
"We can't predict that until it happens," said Chandhok when asked about that prospect. "We've seen intra-team title battles where the team-mates fell out, like Lewis and Nico, and we've seen others where it was harmonious like [Niki] Lauda and [Alain] Prost.
"I think, more often than not, if you think of [Nigel] Mansell and [Nelson] Piquet, Lewis and Fernando [Alonso], [Sebastian] Vettel and [Mark] Webber, [Ayrton] Senna and Prost – the majority of team-mates in a title battle have fallen out.
"It doesn't mean that it has to happen, though. So much will depend on how Toto [Wolff] and the senior management of the team, people like Andrew Shovlin and James Allison, manage the situation, and also on the character of the drivers."
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