Camila Vega
McLaren team driver Lando Norris has mentioned that Russell has had to get more serious at Mercedes in F1. Briton Norris believes his close friend George Russell has had to adapt to the pressures of driving for a leading Formula 1 team in 2022. He scored 128 points, 19 more than his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
What Lando Norris Said about George Russell
Lando Norris says Russell has had to take a more serious approach at Mercedes compared to his three years at Williams, when he had less pressure.
The pressure of being with Mercedes, and having Lewis [Hamilton] as a teammate, [de entrar a Mercedes]is never going to be an easy thing. You don’t want to be seen to be having a fun time and playing around, [donde]but on the other side, there are no complaints because George is doing an amazing job this year, so it is working for him.
He has been super consistent. So it’s been awesome to see probably more of that side of it, how it’s always there, almost apart from Silverstone, which was the worst weekend he’s had.
I think it’s that people change because of the pressure, the nerves of being in F1, being with different teams and the environment you’re in, I think that affects people.
Not for a good or bad reason, but I guess you feel a little bit freer when you’re on, say, a team that struggles and does well, you always feel like ‘I’m on top of things’ and so on.
And when you go to a bigger team, you don’t want to feel like nobody can see you make mistakes and, therefore, you feel like you want to act a little more direct, a little more proper, and you don’t want to joke around as much, things like that.
So not someone who changes, let’s say on purpose, but just because of the environment you’re in, it can affect the way people act and are portrayed, I guess on cameras, television and things like that.
Lando Norris agreed that the situation was similar to what he experienced at McLaren, where he made a conscious effort to have a more serious approach to his second season with the team in 2020.
Exactly the same. In a slightly different way because I think it was more like my own choice.
I’m different to how I was in 2019, but I feel like I was portrayed in too bad a way for acting like that, so it was more like my own choice, but also going into F1, suddenly all the cameras are on you and stuff, and you want to make sure you’re acting correctly.
