Lando Norris believes George Russell has had to adapt to the pressure of being at Mercedes and has become more serious as a result
Since his move to Mercedes, George Russell has been in the spotlight even more than before. After all, the Briton not only competes for the team of the eight-time record world champion in the Constructors, but as a teammate he also has to compete with seven-time record world champion Lewis Hamilton
Russell has done that brilliantly so far: the 24-year-old has finished third on three occasions and, with one exception, has always finished in the top five. Only at his home Grand Prix in Silverstone did he retire after a crash with Guanyu Zhou. He has scored 128 points in the World Championship, 19 more than Hamilton.
Russell’s Formula One colleague and good friend Lando Norris recognises, apart from the good performances the Mercedes driver has put in on the track, a more serious approach than in his three years at Williams, when Russell was considered more of an outsider and the environment exerted less pressure.
Russell has done “good justice to his role “
“I think he was impressive before,” Norris points out, “but the job he did against Lewis and the move to a bigger team, combined with more pressure and more stress … I think he’s done very well in that role.”
“He’s been super consistent. So it was impressive to see him always there, apart from Silverstone, which was the worst weekend he had,” he records.
As for Russell’s personal development, he says: “I think people change, just because of the pressure and demands you have in Formula One. Because you’re with different teams, because of the environment you’re in. Not for any good or bad reason. “
New environment leads to personal change
“But I think you feel a bit freer when you’re in a team that’s struggling and doing well, because then you feel more like you’re in control of things. And in a way, that’s the guy you want to be,” Norris says.
“And when you go to a bigger team you never want to feel like someone sees you making mistakes,” he draws the comparison, “and so you want to be a bit more straightforward, a bit more decent, and you don’t want to mess around as much and things like that.”
This change was often quite automatic because, “The environment you’re in can affect the way you behave and the way you’re portrayed in front of the camera and on television and so on.” In a way, Norris speaks from personal experience there.
Norris: I too have become more serious
Just like Russell is doing now at Mercedes, he says he made a conscious effort to take a more serious approach in his second season at McLaren. “It was exactly the same. In some ways a little bit different, because I think that was more my own decision,” the Brit explains looking back.
“I’m still the guy I was in 2019, but I feel I’ve been put in too much of a bad light by my behaviour. I was probably more like that in Formula 2 and 3, but then all of a sudden all the cameras are on you. That’s when you want to make sure you behave properly. “
