George Russell believes Lando Norris has always excelled on circuits with long corners and high tyre degradation. That's why the Mercedes driver wasn't surprised to see the McLaren driver secure back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands.
Norris, the reigning Formula 1 world champion, took pole and victory at both the Hungaroring and Zandvoort, either side of the summer break. The impressive run coincided with a significant upgrade package introduced by McLaren.
According to Russell, the characteristics of tracks like the Hungaroring and Zandvoort suit Norris's driving style perfectly. Both circuits share similarities: long corners, high tyre degradation, and a dominant two-stop strategy. "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.
Russell added that this trend might continue for the next two or three races, until Mercedes starts bringing more upgrades to the car. "Fingers crossed our competitors don't," he said cautiously.
Next up is Monza, which, despite having a couple of long corners, is predominantly characterized by long straights, heavy braking zones, and low-speed chicanes. Russell expects the F1 engine battery and energy harvesting issue to be exposed to its greatest limit at Monza, but he is optimistic Mercedes will perform better in Italy, given their strong showings at Shanghai, Montreal, and Silverstone 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 teammate, 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 that takes him out of his allocation.
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