![\"Lando](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lando-Norris-holds-the-winning-trophy-after-the-2026-f1-Hungarian-Grand-Prix-scaled.jpg.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe perception would be the Mercedes was a very fast car rather than a dominant one. There would be little to suggest that Russell wasn\u2019t getting the best from it and he would be very much in the hunt for the drivers\u2019 world championship. With the exact same level of performance we\u2019ve seen in reality. So any difficulties he may have felt in tuning into the car\u2019s 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 \u2013 at certain low-grip tracks \u2013 performance in the car he wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t mean that he was struggling to maximise the previous generation of car. It\u2019s simply the combination of the \u201926 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\u2019s presence he\u2019s taken four poles, two wins and been denied a third.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s 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\u2019s had to conquer self-doubt to win the sport\u2019s ultimate prize. But even as world champion, his talent tends to be underrated. Perception again \u2013 and in his case it lags behind reality. He knows how good he is but when he perceives a slight to that level he\u2019s 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\u2019s delivering more consistently than ever. Certainly more than in his title season of \u201925, and it\u2019s feeding his confidence in an upward spiral.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A confidence-fuelled Norris celebrates victory in Hungary<\/p>\n
\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n
You hear it in his comments, he cannot contain the joy, relief, satisfaction of it. \u201cWe were just on another level today,\u201d he said after his win in Hungary, \u201cand I felt in a very good flow of things. When the car\u2019s good and when I\u2019m in a good flow, there\u2019s no stopping me\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c[The] confidence that I\u2019d 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\u2019t know why. The cars are identical, and I\u2019ve just been feeling very strong lately. I\u2019ve worked on many areas from last year. I feel much more confident lately with how to extract performance, and I\u2019ve worked a lot with my engineers to understand this car because it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s always had a competitive relationship, he\u2019s not about to let it ride. He\u2019s comfortable with himself at this level of performance and has no problem saying it as he sees it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The perception would be the Mercedes was a very fast car rather than a dominant one. There would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,3875,1737,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-845589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-george-russell","tag-lando-norris","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}