Ahead of this weekend’s Suzuka Grand Prix, Mercedes driver Russell made an eye-catching prediction about the performance of F1 rival Norris and his McLaren team.
Lando Norris could not hide his surprise after learning that George Russell had rated him as the likely winner of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
McLaren has been much more competitive in the past half-dozen races than it was at the start of the season. And they hope to improve further after another significant improvement last weekend in Singapore.
The package helped Norris finish second and he will be hoping for another podium at Suzuka. Given the MCL60’s overall performance in high-speed corners, Mercedes driver Russell believes they have a good chance of achieving this.
“Lando is likely to be one of the favorites this weekend thanks to his high-speed performance in the McLaren,” the British driver said on Thursday. Apparently these words did not go unnoticed by Norris before practice.
After two sessions on Friday, the McLaren driver was clearly surprised to be told that Russell had tipped him off to win. “Has he seen the rest of the season? Does he watch the races?” he replied with a smile.
Norris finished third in both practice sessions, which should give the team plenty of optimism going into the weekend’s competition. The 23-year-old driver is satisfied with his car’s speed but is not really satisfied with the feeling behind the wheel.
When asked if he felt comfortable sitting in the MCL60 cockpit, he immediately answered:
“No, not really, there’s a rhythm there. The pace today was quite good, probably one of the closest times Red Bull and the leader had on Friday.
“So that’s encouraging from a speed standpoint, but the car handles pretty well everywhere. I think that’s probably the case for the majority. It has very low grip, I don’t think that that’s fair to us in particular, that’s just a few.” .” If we can try to calm things down a bit and regain balance, I think we can have a good day tomorrow. Good speed but difficult to drive.”
Despite the speed he has in his machine, Norris downplayed his chances of claiming the fastest qualifying spot on Saturday. He added:
“I doubt it will be extreme – the Red Bulls are just doing normal things at Red Bull at the moment.
“I think we’re not that far away. I would say we usually get a little closer when we reduce the fuel level and rev up the engine. I think fighting for pole is quite a big task and perhaps a bit too far. ” But we have to try to challenge Mercedes, Ferraris and Astons. I think this will be our fight tomorrow.