Lewis Hamilton ‘passionately hates’ losing to team-mate George Russell, claims Nico Rosberg

Hamilton is currently being outperformed by his younger team-mate, although Mercedes are generally struggling

Lewis Hamilton may not win a race this season, fears Nico Rosberg (AFP via Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton “passionately hates” losing to Mercedes team-mate George Russell on a regular basis so far this season, according to Nico Rosberg.

The seven-time F1 world champion has been consistently outperformed by the younger Brit as both battle with a car that lacks the pace to genuinely compete with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull at the front end of the grid.

Since joining from Williams over the winter, Russell has fought hard to finish inside the top five in every race so far this season and lies fourth in the drivers’ championship - albeit already 37 points adrift of Charles Leclerc at the summit.

Meanwhile, Hamilton sits seventh in the championship after a surprise season-opening podium in Bahrain has been followed up by finishes of 10th, fourth and 13th in the subsequent three races.

And as Mercedes continue to fight against issues such as porpoising, Rosberg - who was Hamilton’s team-mate between 2013 and 2016 - fears the 37-year-old may not win a race for the entirety of the 2022 campaign.

“It’s definitely a very tough situation for Lewis,” Rosberg told Sky Sports. “He’s won a race in every season of his career and it looks like maybe this will be the year when he can’t win anymore.

“You can see how the tension is rising and that’s natural. Lewis will obviously start to show those emotions a little bit.

“Nevertheless, with the experience he has I think he will eventually manage to keep those under control. Let’s not forget also Lewis hates ending up behind his team-mate.

“Even if you’re 11th or 13th he really passionately hates coming in behind his team-mate – it makes him very angry and that also happened at Imola in qualifying and the sprint race so it will put the tension up a lot, especially in the engineering room where Lewis will be pushing harder and harder. It will be interesting to watch how that unfolds.”