Lando Norris has accused British rival George Russell of “trying to play mind games” with him by relentlessly talking up McLaren’s car. But he says he will “not fall for them”, adding that if anything it shows he is inside the Mercedes driver’s head rather than the other way around.
Norris, 25, held off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to win the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last weekend after he and team-mate Oscar Piastri took a one-two in qualifying, more than 0.3 seconds clear of the field.
Ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Russell told reporters that McLaren should really win every race this season since their advantage was bigger than “anything Red Bull ever had”, including the 2023 season when Red Bull won 21 out of 22 races.
Norris laughed when that idea was put to him. “Ha! What? A bigger advantage than the 2023 [Red Bull] that won everything? Right. I thought he [Russell] was a bit smarter than that, but clearly not. I don’t even need to say anything. I think it’s obvious enough that it’s not.”
Norris added: “George thinks he can play a lot of games but… I don’t fall for any of them.
“The car clearly is not [as strong as Red Bull in 2023]. It’s very good but the fact he’s been so much ‘the season’s over’ after one race is a bit weird. But he can do whatever he wants. I am happy he thinks those things.”
Asked whether Russell’s words might get in his head, Norris countered: “No. If anything, it seems the opposite. It seems like he’s done with [the season]. It seems like I am in his head, if he thinks they can’t catch up.”
Norris and Russell are almost two years apart in age. While they enjoy a good relationship, there is likely an element of professional jealousy at play. Russell beat Norris to win the Formula Two championship in 2018. Norris is now favoured to win the drivers’ title.
Norris suggested he had learnt from last season when he faltered under the pressure applied by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and lost the drivers’ title.
Asked whether he would speak to Russell, Norris said: “I’ll probably say it to him and he’ll say: ‘Oh, uh, er,’ but this year especially I don’t care about any of it. I never really have. I find people playing games amusing. I like to click on those links because it is amusing to see what people will try to create out of nothing, especially when you know the truth. These games between drivers I have never understood much. It could be because I am terrible at them. But they don’t affect me in any way.”
Brown steps up Horner feud
Meanwhile, McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has claimed rival Christian Horner should be feeling “vulnerable” as Red Bull team principal after losing senior staff last season such as Adrian Newey and then being booed at last month’s F1 season launch at the O2 Arena.
“When I go and meet my board, I would not be feeling great because they would be going, ‘Well, why did he leave? Why did he leave? And why did he leave? Oh, and by the way, you didn’t seem to get a very warm welcome at the launch’,” said Brown, who has engaged in a tit-for-tat with Horner going back years. “I don’t know how [Horner] feels. But I would feel vulnerable.”
