Lando Norris says ‘giddy’ George Russell hungry to replace him as world champion

Lando Norris has claimed winning his maiden Formula One title has fuelled a “hungry and giddy” George Russell to knock him off his world championship perch.

Norris will head into next month’s opening race in Australia with the number one on his McLaren for the first time after he held off Max Verstappen to win his maiden title at last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi.

However, it is anticipated that Norris’ McLaren team, who have won the constructors’ championship for the past two seasons, could be playing catch-up to Russell and Mercedes.

Following a huge overhaul in the sport’s regulations, Mercedes have hit the ground running, and Russell has been declared by the bookmakers as the pre-season championship favourite, a position Norris was in at this stage last year.

Norris, Russell and London-born Williams driver Alex Albon all graduated to Formula One in 2019, and Norris said: “I spoke to George and Alex the other day because we played padel together.

“We all came into F1 at the same time, and it (Norris winning the title) has created more hunger for them, especially for George because he is the bookies’ favourite.

“He is all a bit giddy at the moment and that is a great thing to see.”

Norris beat Red Bull’s Verstappen to the title by just two points despite having the fastest car underneath him for the majority of the season.

Such was their dominance, McLaren took the team title with six of the 24 rounds remaining. And Verstappen claimed towards the end of last season that he would “easily” have taken his fifth title if he was driving Norris’ McLaren.

But Norris continued: “I hope there is that little bit extra level of respect that comes from winning the title because the people who have done it know what it takes. That is cool, an extra bonus and not something I have asked for.

“It is quite clear I have a different mentality and approach to Max, good or bad.

“I am always trying to improve, and I know there are areas that I am not at the level I need to be.

“When you are fighting these guys, you need to be close to perfection. There are still plenty of things I want to work on and be better on.

“But I don’t feel any different coming into this season. I want to go out and win and that is my baseline feeling. But if I don’t achieve it again, I will always have something that I am very proud of and I know is a huge achievement.

“It certainly hasn’t taken away any ambition or desire to want to do it again or to come into this season and to not care about it. If anything, I enjoyed last year a lot and of course I want to do it again. I have come into this season with the same ambition and motivation as last year which is to try and win it.”