The perception would be the Mercedes was a very fast car rather than a dominant one. There would be little to suggest that Russell wasn’t getting the best from it and he would be very much in the hunt for the drivers’ world championship. With the exact same level of performance we’ve seen in reality. So any difficulties he may have felt in tuning into the car’s feel would not be tormenting him the way they are. They would just be traits, part and parcel of the concept which is allowing the car to be so fast globally. His confidence would be sky-high as he relished the opportunity of fighting the Ferrari drivers for the title. The fact that there was – at certain low-grip tracks – performance in the car he wasn’t accessing would not be apparent. Neither to him nor the watching world. That has simply been exposed by an extraordinary talent in the other car. But it doesn’t mean that he was struggling to maximise the previous generation of car. It’s simply the combination of the ’26 car traits with the level of his team-mate which has created this troubling blip in the consistency of his performance. And it is consistency rather than peak pace. After all, even with Antonelli’s presence he’s taken four poles, two wins and been denied a third.
Let’s now look at Norris. A driver with a driving style which better lends itself to adaptability, more overlap of braking and cornering and thereby a greater variety of feasible corner entries for varying circuit grip. He has talked often about his early struggles with mental health and how he’s had to conquer self-doubt to win the sport’s ultimate prize. But even as world champion, his talent tends to be underrated. Perception again – and in his case it lags behind reality. He knows how good he is but when he perceives a slight to that level he’s quick to respond. He has weaknesses, just like any driver, and he knows what they are. But he is equally certain about the extent of his strengths and with a title behind him he’s delivering more consistently than ever. Certainly more than in his title season of ’25, and it’s feeding his confidence in an upward spiral.
A confidence-fuelled Norris celebrates victory in Hungary
Grand Prix Photo
You hear it in his comments, he cannot contain the joy, relief, satisfaction of it. “We were just on another level today,” he said after his win in Hungary, “and I felt in a very good flow of things. When the car’s good and when I’m in a good flow, there’s no stopping me…
“[The] confidence that I’d win the race no matter what, whether [Piastri] boxed early or late or whatever. The pace advantage I had was huge today. But I don’t know why. The cars are identical, and I’ve just been feeling very strong lately. I’ve worked on many areas from last year. I feel much more confident lately with how to extract performance, and I’ve worked a lot with my engineers to understand this car because it’s certainly not an easy car to understand and figure out how to drive on the limit consistently. So, why? Just hard work. Hard work from my engineers and from myself to improve me as a driver and improve my driving.”
That elation, that feeling of being on top of the world, even in a car which has not been a title threat this year, is spilling out of him. The conversion of all that behind-the-scenes graft and how it’s allowing him to fully express his natural performance has got him walking on air. So when he hears about a rival complaining of a car not suiting him, a friend with whom he’s always had a competitive relationship, he’s not about to let it ride. He’s comfortable with himself at this level of performance and has no problem saying it as he sees it.
The contrast in form of Russell and Norris (relative to their cars) and how they are each reacting provides a fascinating glimpse into the psyche of competition at this level.
