Hamilton admits faking illness as Russell too sick for Mercedes team event

30 December 2023 , 17:39

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Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton during a visit to the Mercedes factory (Image: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team)

Lewis Hamilton admitted he has faked illness to get out of Formula 1 test days in the past, as team-mate George Russell missed out on a team event through sickness.

Mercedes managed second place in the championship at the end of a long an arduous season for the team. And to give thanks to staff for their hard work, team principal Toto Wolff was joined by Hamilton and reserve driver Mick Schumacher on a visit to their Brackley and Brixworth facilities.

Both visits were caught on camera and shared in a video on the team's official channel s. But Russell was conspicuous by his absence in both visits.

It didn't take long for it to be addressed - sitting between Schumacher and Hamilton, Wolff told the room why their other driver was not present. "George is really ill. It's not a sickie that he's pulled," joked the Austrian.

Hamilton smiled and picked up his microphone to respond: "I was wondering!" And that was when he made his confession in front of his boss: "In the past, I have done that to miss the test days, because generally I don't like test days.

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"So, yesterday, when I head that [Russell] was sick, I was like, 'Oh, he's one-upped me, he's gone to another level'." Fortunately for the seven-time world champion, Wolff was still smiling despite learning of his star driver's preference to skive off work.

What will have come as no surprise to him was that Russell needed some time off to get over his illness. He had been suffering for weeks as a demanding schedule at the end of the season caught up to the Brit.

He coughed and spluttered through a Sky Sports interview at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And he addressed it during that conversation as he joked about the fact his results had improved despite his struggles with illness.

"I've been really ill for the last two weeks and I've been really, really quick, so I don't know if I need to be ill more often or what it is," smiled Russell. "But for the last two weeks I've felt super comfortable in the car. I've had on average about three hours of sleep per night - maybe that's the secret everyone has been missing!"

And after the race he added: "I was coughing every single lap but, when you're strapped into the car, you can't breathe. You can't take a deep breath in to get the cough out, so it was just constantly with me. It was pretty miserable, so I was pleased to bring it home when I saw that chequered flag."

Daniel Moxon