F1 News
Norris hits back at Russell 'In this position, you can fail.'
- Savannah Lenz
Lando Norris disagrees with George Russell's statements about McLaren from earlier this race weekend. The Mercedes driver stated that McLaren is currently so dominant that they can disregard development for the 2025 car and instead focus entirely on 2026. Norris thinks this kind of mindset is setting Russell up to fail.
After the Australian Grand Prix, Norris was asked if he thought he was now the favourite for the title. He cheekily responded, "Let's see."
To the media he said, "Max was three-tenths off yesterday. Last year, we were much further off and ended up with the best car by the end of the season. We were over half a second off at the beginning of last year, behind Red Bull, and ended up with the quickest car."
Earlier this weekend, Russell said at a media session also attended by GPblog that McLaren is currently so dominant that Mercedes could stop developing for 2025 and instead focus on 2026. Norris vehemently disagrees. "I know George made some comments earlier this weekend that they can just turn our focus to 2026. If that’s their mentality, wonderful, but that’s not the mentality to have. Sorry, mate. We know we still have a lot of work to do on this year’s car," the McLaren driver stressed. "If you relax in this position, you fail. In Formula 1, if you start thinking things are good and groovy, that’s when you get caught."
is McLaren the favourite for 2025?
"I do think we're favourites because the team has done an amazing job, and the car is flying". Norris did however, mention that he wouldn't expect an utterly dominant era from the team. "We will have races where we struggle. If we started the season in Bahrain, I don’t think we would have won, and you wouldn't be asking me this question". He therefore wants everyone to wait before jumping to conclusions.
"We are the team to beat, mainly because we have two drivers up there pushing each other." He added, "That helps. Do I think [that] me and Oscar pushing each other in qualifying yesterday allowed us to get one and a half, one tenth more than the two drivers here because their team-mates aren’t as equipped or experienced? Yes, so add that into the equation as well."
Norris said, "It’s not just about the car. The team has done an amazing job, and I thank them for everything they’re doing. But we know we can make it better, and that’s our aim."
This article was written in collaboration with Kim Hoefnagel.
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