Mercedes star George Russell took first place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and has hit back at criticism from McLaren’s Lando Norris

George Russell has played down criticism of F1’s new cars (Image: GettyImages)
George Russell has hit back at criticism of Formula 1’s new regulations and suggested Lando Norris’ disapproval simply comes down to self interest. Mercedes racer Russell took home the first win of the season in Melbourne as his team dominated the weekend amid furore over the sport’s latest vehicles.

After qualifying sixth earlier in the weekend, Norris declared the newest generation of cars as ‘the worst’, having previously had the ‘nicest to drive’ when he won the world championship last season. Norris is far from alone in his criticism, however, with Max Verstappen among the most outspoken in the paddock about the state of the sport.

Russel is not too concerned about the critiques of his rivals and simply believes his Mercedes team have done a better job of adjusting to the new format than their opponents. “If he was winning I don’t think he’d be saying the same,” Russell said of Norris.

“We weren’t happy with how stiff the cars were last year and the porpoising. Everyone had a bad back and the drivers were complaining about that and the McLaren drivers said they had no porpoising, even though we watched their car and they were porpoising.

“So everyone is always looking to themselves and we are all selfish in this regard. The truth is last year we had the same engine as them and McLaren did a better job than us and they beat us.

“Now McLaren have got the same engine as us, the same as Williams and the same as Alpine, and so far we’ve done a better job than them. That’s just how the game goes.”

Russell believes that the new style of racing cannot be judged too swiftly, given the criticism that was present last season. Changes arrived after racing had been too boring, with not enough opportunities to overtake.

Mereces took home victory in Australia (Image: Getty)

“We’re 22 drivers, when we’ve had the least cars with the least tyre degradation and when we’ve been happiest, everyone moans the racing is boring,” he said.

“Now the drivers aren’t perfectly happy and everyone says it is an amazing race. You can’t have it all, so I think we should give it a chance and see after a few more races.”

Russell did admit that his car was not ‘fun’ to drive, but he believes that the Australian Grand Prix could be the worst location for the new regulations. “Is it perfect right now? No,” he said.

“But it’s race one of a long set of regulations, and this is probably the worst track for it. So we have to give it some time before everyone kicks off.

“Even though it wasn’t maybe the most fun to drive, it actually made for some pretty good drama on TV.”