The winner of the Australian GP, the opening round of the Formula 1 season, George Russell, commented after the race on the criticism made by Lando Norris regarding the cars of the category’s new regulations. The Mercedes driver dominated this Sunday’s (8) race, with a pace that impressed and highlighted the German team as the main title contender.
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During the weekend, Norris, who is the current champion, stated that F1 had gone “from the best cars to drive to the worst”. Questioned about this assessment after the race, Russell suggested that his rival’s opinion might be different if McLaren’s performance were similar to last season’s.
“Yeah, well, he’s always… yeah, yeah. I don’t know. If he were winning, I don’t think he would say the same,” Russell reacted. The driver also recalled the complaints made in the last championship about the cars’ behavior, especially regarding stiffness and the phenomenon of porpoising: “We weren’t happy with how stiff the cars were last year and with the porpoising, and everyone had back pain and the drivers were complaining about that, but the McLaren drivers said there was no porpoising, even though we saw their car bouncing. So, you know, everyone is always looking at themselves and we are all selfish in that respect.”
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Russell also highlighted that, despite using the same engines, the performance of the teams can vary according to the work carried out on each project: “The truth is that last year we had the same engine as them and McLaren did a better job than us and beat us. Now McLaren has the same engine as us, the same as Williams and the same as Alpine, and so far we have done a better job than them. That’s how the game works,” concluded the Mercedes Briton.
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