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McLaren's Lando Norris criticized competitor George Russell for his comments on the MCL39 being extremely dominant on the track. The former claimed that there is still a lot of work to be done on the car, and criticized Russell's "mentality" for his comments.
The Australian Grand Prix was a show of complete dominance from McLaren and their drivers as they led from lights out to the chequered flag (except for the little instances when a Red Bull and a Ferrari were observed fronting the grid in the tricky conditions). Lando Norris won the race, and with it, currently leads the Drivers' Championship.
Post-race, Mercedes's George Russell, who finished P3, mentioned that McLaren is so far ahead of the grid that they can start focusing on the 2026 car. Norris, however, disagrees with this.
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"Max was three-tenths off yesterday. Last year, we were much further off and ended up with the best car by the end of the season. We were over half a second off at the beginning of last year behind Red Bull and ended up with the quickest car," Norris said (via Sky Sports)
He also criticized Russell for his "mentality," as the latter spoke about McLaren's dominance at Albert Park:
"I know George made some comments earlier this weekend that we can just turn our focus to 2026. If that's their mentality, wonderful, but that's not the mentality to have. Sorry, mate."
"We know we still have a lot of work to do on this year's car. If you relax in this position, you fail. In Formula 1, if you start thinking things are good and groovy, that's when you get caught," he added.
McLaren currently leads the Constructors' Championship. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have proven to be extremely competitive out on the track against their competitors.
McLaren speculated to have more pace as Lando Norris won the race with a damaged car according to team principal
Considering the data, Lando Norris was the fastest driver on the track during the Australian Grand Prix. His lap times were far better than those of his competitors by a wide margin, showcasing the extremely strong car that the team has built over the winter.
However, the car is speculated to be even faster. Team principal Andrea Stella revealed after the race that Norris was driving with a damaged floor, which was hampering the car's drivability and hindering it from reaching its complete aerodynamic potential.
"Lando had the floor pretty badly damaged," Stella said via the Guardian. "He lost aerodynamic performance and this meant that he couldn’t utilise the full pace of the car. So the situation got more tense than would have normally been the case because of the damage."
If the car was still able to beat its competition whilst not being in perfect shape, it can only be assumed that they have much more potential. The exact form of the car against its competitors would be analyzed in the upcoming races as F1 heads to Shanghai next for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.
