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George Russell says Lando Norris has “always been a bit of a specialist” at circuits with long corners and high tyre degradation, so he wasn’t surprised to see the McLaren Formula 1 driver take back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands.
Reigning F1 world champion Norris has taken pole and victory at both the Hungaroring and Zandvoort either side of the summer break – a development coupled up with a significant McLaren upgrade package.
However, Russell pointed to Norris as a driver who has always shown strong performances at tracks like the Hungaroring and Zandvoort, given their similar characteristics with long corners and high tyre degradation.
“I don’t think it’s a major surprise for us, seeing how competitive Lando was this weekend, considering he won in Budapest,” Russell said after finishing third in the Dutch Grand Prix.
“It’s a very similar circuit with the long corners, high tyre degradation, with the two-stop strategy, so there’s a lot of similarities between the two circuits. I think this may continue for the coming two or three races until we start to bring more to the car, and fingers crossed our competitors don’t.”
Next up is Monza that, while it does have a couple of long corners, is predominantly a circuit characterised by long straights, heavy braking zones and low-speed chicanes.
Lando Norris, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
While F1’s engine battery and energy harvesting issue is likely to be exposed to its greatest limit at Monza and dominate conversation, Russell expects Mercedes to perform better at the Italian track given the team’s good showing at the likes of Shanghai, Montreal and Silverstone so far this year.
“I think we will be slightly more competitive there,” Russell said of Monza. “However, I believe Ferrari have an engine upgrade incoming, and the truth is we just don’t know.
“But I do believe that these high-degradation circuits really suit McLaren very well, and especially Lando. He’s always been a bit of a specialist in those conditions. We also saw it last year.
“Monza may be slightly different, but I think they are the team to beat right now.”
Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli is set to serve a back-of-the-grid penalty at his home round in Monza for a full Mercedes power unit change which takes him out of his allocation.
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