“No way” Lewis Hamilton would have left Mercedes amid current form, George Russell claims

George Russell believes there’s “no way” Lewis Hamilton would have quit Mercedes amid their current F1 form.

Hamilton stunned the F1 world with the announcement that he would be leaving Mercedes in order to join rivals Ferrari in 2025 before the start of the current season.

The seven-time world champion’s decision to call time on his decade-plus Mercedes stint followed two challenging campaigns under F1’s new technical regulations.

Mercedes made an underwhelming start to 2024 but have enjoyed an upswing in form of late following an aggressive development push. The team arrive at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix off the back of consecutive victories in Austria and Britain, where Hamilton ended a 945-day winning drought.

"I don't think he would have left if the team was performing like this. No way he would have left, for sure not," Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Russell told Reuters.

"For 2026 the PU [power unit]'s looking really strong and everything we're doing with the fuels is looking great and there's a lot of optimism for us over the next couple of years," he continued.

”As tough as these last few years have been, it really feels like we've got the momentum with us now.”

Speaking about Hamilton’s decision to make a bombshell switch to Ferrari, Russell replied: "I think everybody wants change at some point. He's been here 12 years now, he's achieved so much with the team. I think for him it's exciting to have that change.

"But of course if the team you're currently with are winning races and everything is looking super great for the future, you just want to be in the fastest car possible and it doesn't matter what colour that is.”

Russell praised Mercedes’ turnaround in competitiveness, saying “it just kind of feels like the Mercedes of years ago”.

The 26-year-old Briton also credited James Allison, who returned to the position of technical director last year as part of a major reshuffle.

"It's never one person but just having James taking all the ideas and steering in the right direction and empowering the people to go and do it has been great."