Russell: Watching Norris, Albon have more success in rookie year was “difficult”

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In the round-up: Mercedes driver George Russell admits he found it “difficult” to watch fellow rookies Lando Norris and Alexander Albon have more productive seasons during his rookie year at Williams.

In brief

Watching fellow rookies enjoy more success in 2019 “difficult” – Russell

Mercedes driver George Russell admits he found it “difficult” to watch fellow rookies Lando Norris and Alexander Albon have more productive seasons during his rookie year at Williams.

Russell entered Formula 1 with Williams in 2019 after winning the previous season’s Formula 2 title. He endured a point-less year with the team who struggled throughout the season with the slowest car on the grid.

Speaking on an episode of the High Performance Podcast, Russell admitted he had struggled watching his fellow rookies have greater success than him in his first year in Formula 1.

“That was a really unique season for my first year in Formula 1, joining Williams and a team that was on the brink of bankruptcy,” Russell said. “Every single race weekend, it was racing to survive – it wasn’t racing to perform, the team was racing to survive and the 800 people’s jobs [were] at stake.

“There was no doubt when I got to the first race in Australia, I’m here in Formula 1 – one dream accomplished – and go out on track and we’re four seconds off the pace, the car’s falling apart and we’re being lapped two or three times. You kind of think to yourself ‘is this the dream?’. But I think I’ve always had quite a rational view to things. And while seeing Alex in a Red Bull scoring podiums and being the man, to a degree, and Lando equally always in the points, that was sort of difficult to digest. Because I’d just come from Formula 2 where I beat them.”

Magnussens take seventh in Gulf 12 Hours

Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen and his father, former F1 driver Jan Magnussen, finished seventh in the Gulf 12 Hours at the Yas Marina Circuit yesterday with team mate Mark Kvamme.

The trio logged 332 laps of the circuit in their Ferrari 488 GT3 car over the course of the endurance race, taking seventh overall and earning fifth place in their class. The two Magnussens and Kvamme will team up to race again during next month’s Daytona 24 Hours.

Rally Raid world champion “sure” Alonso will return to Dakar

World Rally Raid champion driver Nasser Al-Attiyah says he is “sure” Fernando Alonso will compete in the famous Dakar Rally again in the future.

The two-time Formula 1 world champion competed in the 2020 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia with Toyota. He completed the race in 13th position overall. Carlos Sainz Snr won the race in the cars class.

Asked if he felt Alonso would compete in the race again, Al-Attiyah, who has won the race four times, including this year, said: “I think so, yeah. Because he really loves Dakar. I am sure after maybe next year or two years later, he will come. I am sure.

“I still push Fernando to have him again in Dakar. What he did for the first time in Dakar, he showed speed. In this kind of race you need to have real experience, because if you see the history of Dakar you need to have four or five or six years experience until win when you win.”

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Comment of the day

This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is @ninjabadger!:

Gordon Ramsay had to come out personally to remind drivers their steaks do not come “medium-softs”.
NinjaBadger

Thanks to everyone who came up with caption idea this week and a special mention to Keith Campbell, Red Andy, and Fraiser who all came up with particularly good captions.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Andrew Hey, Christian Andrade, Rigi and Topher Smith!

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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6 comments on “Russell: Watching Norris, Albon have more success in rookie year was “difficult””

  1. @willwood was there a winner for the previous caption competition?

  2. ”Broke the rules” indeed.

  3. When I read the comments of Russel it also shows that you need some luck to be in the right place at the right time. I think Lando is one of the most talented youngsters that earned him a long term contract at McLaren but I don’t think he is at the right place at the right time. I hope he doesn’t end up like Jean Alesi who in 1990 was considered as one of the best new talents but ended up in the right place at the wrong time. But let’s stay positive and hope we have a new season with at least four competitive car’s.

    1. Alesi might’ve been unlucky with the car, but he was never a top tier talent; norris is, I would compare it more with alonso if he never gets a decent car, ofc alonso did but it’s been a very long time now.

  4. Grammar in the headline: Fail

Comments are closed.