Mercedes' George Russell 'more sensible and mature' and has an 'edge' over McLaren's Lando Norris, claims F1 journo

On the latest WTF1 podcast, one of the points of discussion was who out of George Russell and Lando Norris was better. According to journalist Katy Fairman, Russell holds a slight edge over Norris at the moment.

Fairman reasoned that, in her view, Russell has shown a bit more when it comes to driving. She feels that the Mercedes man is not only a fast driver but has shown sensibility in the way he has approached certain situations in a race and made race-changing decisions as well.

According to Fairman, Russell has proven to be the more mature driver of the two. On the aforementioned podcast, she said:

“I think both of them are insanely talented, but I feel like George Russell just has that edge from what we’ve seen him achieve in a really really bad car, whether it was qualifying, he’s often made some big-brained strategy calls at Williams, whether that’s at Spa or Russia, flip it on its head at Russia, [Lando] Norris did not have the best of races there, did he? I feel like George Russell is maybe a bit more sensible and mature that way. I think he might just be ever so slightly ahead of Norris.”

“I don’t think there’s a proper way to compare them right now, maybe next year when McLaren sort their stuff out and they’re actually more competitive, that’ll be a good benchmark to compare. George is "Mr.Consistent" while Lando’s results can be a bit like a rollercoaster.”

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The counterpoint to the George Russell-Lando Norris debate

While Katy Fairman gave the nod to George Russell, second panel member Matt Gallagher felt both the drivers were comparable to each other. He claimed that since they are yet to drive in similarly paced cars, it's hard to pass a judgment on where they stand comparatively.

Gallagher said:

“I think they are very comparable, I don’t think you can say one is better than the other until they are potentially teammates. I think they are very much as good as each other. I don’t think Norris is better than George Russell, I don’t think Russell is particularly better than Norris.”

“We’ve seen great drives from the pair of them but they aren’t comparable performances. Russell has been amazing in a completely dustbin of a car in Williams and managed to get unbelievable results in Spa qualifying last year. Lando, on the other hand, has shown amazing pace, he’s got so many podiums despite being in a car that hasn’t exactly been near the best.”

“His teammate (Daniel Ricciardo) did not manage that, he had 1 win and even then, Norris was right behind him on the podium. Lando has provided multiple podiums for McLaren, he’s outperforming his teammate who is a 9-time race winner, what more can Lando do to be considered at least comparable to Russell.”

With such intense debate over the driving of two young drivers, it goes to show how secure the future of F1 is with such great talent already on the grid.