Lando Norris warns George Russell ‘nothing to lose’ approach may fail in Antonelli title fight

Lando Norris has warned George Russell that his no-pressure approach from last season may not be the secret to the Mercedes driver overcoming his deficit to Kimi Antonelli in the title race.

After all, they’re coming at it from two different perspectives, as Norris needed to build confidence while Russell needs to regain his.

Lando Norris warns George Russell over Antonelli title fight approach

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Although Russell arrived on the F1 2026 grid for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as the favourite to win the world title, it is his teammate Antonelli who has surged ahead.

The Italian has scored 156 points in the opening seven race weekends, most coming during his five-Grand-Prix-winning streak that began in China and ended in Monaco.

That was bookended by Russell’s Australian Grand Prix win, and Lewis Hamilton’s P1 at the Barcelona race.

The trio are holding down the top three positions in the championship with Antonelli ahead. But while Russell was second in a Mercedes 1-2, he has now fallen to third behind Hamilton. He trails the Ferrari driver by nine points, but is a worrying 50 behind Antonelli.

Russell finds himself in a similar position to Norris last season when a retirement at the Dutch Grand Prix left the Briton trailing his Australian teammate by 32 points.

And as with Norris last season, the Briton is going for the no-pressure approach.

The 28-year-old believes he has nothing to lose anymore, and declared: “You know pressure’s off, go out, enjoy every single race, try and win every single race, and I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Taking the self-imposed pressure off his own shoulders was an approach that Norris adopted last season as he sought to make up ground in the championship race.

But while Norris clawed his way back in the fight and overhauled Piastri to win the title by two points ahead of Max Verstappen, he concedes that it won’t work for everyone.

It may not work for Russell

“It certainly made a difference,” Norris told PlanetF1.com and other media of his decision to shrug off the pressure. “Everyone thinks differently, so I don’t know how much…

“I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself. I don’t know if George puts pressure on himself or doesn’t feel it or not.

“I don’t know what situation he was necessarily in now. He’s also always been quite a confident guy at the same time.

“So whereas last year I went from not much confidence to, ‘what have I got to lose now?’ He’s gone from feeling quite confident to maybe losing some of that confidence.

“Maybe now getting to that point, every driver has to find their own way of doing it. It’s not one thing works for all.

“It’s tough to know exactly what you’ve got to do in that situation. Do you put more pressure on yourself? Do you try and feel none of it?

“There are a lot of things to think about as soon as someone says you’re a title contender and you’re in that situation.

“He’s also got a teammate who’s doing a pretty unbelievable job. Probably better than I would say most people were expecting in here.

“He’s got pressure from having a very good teammate and someone who’s challenging him incredibly well, not making any mistakes.

“And then you’ve got your own challenge of just getting the most out of yourself.”

He added: “We will see if he says he’s going around with no pressure now, then we’ll see if that helps him or not.

“But every driver has to define their own words, so we’ll see in time.”

F1 2026: The season’s winners and losers

The results of the F1 2026 championship

The F1 2026 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

Norris revealed that while he had not given Russell any advice on how to deal with the championship situation that he finds himself, the compatriots do speak about Formula 1 and what’s going on in the sport.

“I’ve spoken to him about a number of things, but maybe not so much about the pressure, the title or contender title or questions that you get consistently,” he said. “So yeah, not so much about that specifically.

“But we always talk, we always speak about, yeah, what’s going on, what’s good, what’s not good, and all those things.

“He’s a guy I respect a lot, and I think he’s very talented, so I have a good feeling.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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