Mumbai: When George Russell was in his rookie year in Formula 1 back in 2019, Kimi Antonelli was just a teenager, albeit one who was already starting to show promise as he climbed the karting ranks. Fast forward to 2026 and it’s a fascinating story that unfolds on the track, with two racing drivers at the center of the plot. It is not Russell, the experienced dog, who leads the F1 drivers’ championship but his Mercedes team-mate Antonelli, still a teenager, who sits on top with a 40-point lead at Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Watching a young hotshot take the spotlight you probably thought was yours by now, especially in a sport as unique as F1, can be a self-inflicted experience. If that’s the case with Russell, then it’s a feeling that fellow Briton and former F1 champion Damon Hill can easily relate to. “As a driver, if you spend many years in a team, there are two ways of looking at it. You can be part of the furniture, or you feel at home,” Hill, who became champion with Williams 30 years ago, told a select group of journalists during a call on Friday. “When a driver is in a team, they cannot consider that they are the main concern of that group. They can get a new driver and if that driver gives better for them, then the loyalty and the interest goes to another driver. “So the problem with being a racing driver in our sport is that you’re not really part of the team. When you’re there, you’re part of the team, but you have to prove yourself against the other guy. Unless, as Hill explains, you have a situation like Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing. “(Max) will be able to keep that preeminence in the team to the point where the team will then be about him. That is much, much more difficult in a team like Mercedes. And it is difficult when you have someone pop in like me with David Coultard really during my time, “Hill reasoned. “I fought Michael Schumacher for the ’94 championship, and I’d have David Coultard in and out to take points from me or Nigel Mansell. “And I keep saying to the team, ‘how can I beat that? I’m the guy who stays here for the rest of the season to fight with Michael Schumacher for a championship, and you keep throwing wild cards like Nigel Mansell and David Coultard, who should also race, but they’re only there for a short time’. “It doesn’t seem like a strategically good move to me, but it’s very depressing.” The only way to deal with it? Prove that you are the better driver, said Hill. “If that person is getting attention because they’re doing a lot of things and they’re delivering results, then the only response to that is, well, you’ve got to do better than them. “They know the deal, but it might feel like you’ve been betrayed a bit if they’ve worked with someone better,” the 65-year-old chuckled. In what is shaping up to be a fight for the title involving two drivers from the same team for the second consecutive season, Hill tipped the 19-year-old Italian to come out on top. “I think the favorite is Kimi because he has the equipment. Mercedes is the most consistent and he has a point advantage. And I think that he is still on a learning curve. So George has a mountain to climb to stop him. (Fans can watch the British GP exclusively on FanCode)