David Coulthard has warned George Russell that his "mighty" Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will show him at some point "why he won seven world championships".
Mercedes entered its 2023 season with the hope that it had harnessed the aerodynamic issues that plagued its 2022 campaign.
While porpoising has been almost eradicated on its new-spec W14 car, the Brackley squad continues to deal with a design that often displays an erratic behaviour out on the track.
Wholesale changes are in the works, and a significant update will appear next week at Imola.
Hamilton and Russell have made the most of their equipment, but the latter – perhaps spurred on by his youth and ambition – appears to have a better ability to drive around the W14's problems.
But Coulthard contends that Russell's relative performance edge over Hamilton is circumstantial and has nothing to do with the latter's age or a waning motivation.
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"This is the best car that George has ever driven, remember he was at Williams, this is not the best car that Lewis has ever driven," Coulthard told Channel 4.
"His mind is in a different place, the car isn’t talking to him, playing to his strengths and you can see he is fighting it out there, it’s just not stable.
"So you have two drivers at different phases of their career. The mighty Lewis is still in there, it just won’t really show itself until the Mercedes is as mighty as it once was."
Coulthard also suggests that Hamilton's yet-to-be-solved future with Mercedes is "baggage" that may be unknowingly weighing on the seven-time world champion's mind. Also, Hamilton's last win in F1 goes all the way back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
"George is just sort of constantly there," added the former F1 charger.
"This is the best car he’s ever driven, so he’s not caught up with the baggage of Lewis trying to figure it out, ‘am I re-signing for another year?’ ‘Can I win another World Championship?’ So there’s a lot more on his plate.
"George is doing a brilliant job, [he is an] absolute asset for the team.
"That’s not to say Lewis isn’t doing a brilliant job, it just means that the car isn’t talking to him right now and when it does, expect him to be showing George why he won seven World Championships."
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