‘Impressive’ McLaren rival is willing to do what Lando Norris won’t to win a world championship

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Lando Norris recently described winning an F1 world championship as ‘priority number two’. But one of his rivals places a far bigger emphasis on that objective.

For the first time in his career, Norris has a strong chance of winning the championship heading into the final races. He trails Oscar Piastri by 22 points, but that’s a deficit that can definitely be overturned with six Grands Prix and three Sprints to go.

However, Norris is more concerned about ‘enjoying life’ than he is winning a title. That’s a perfectly valid stance – racing is, after all, a job, and nobody is questioning Norris’ commitment.

“I want to enjoy my life, have fun and share it with others,” he said. “For me, that’s the priority. Priority number two is to try and win the championship.”

But it’s possible that other drivers are willing to make more sacrifices off track in pursuit of that objective. And that extra one percent of dedication may make a difference on it.

George Russell sees winning an F1 title as ‘everything’, Jamie Chadwick says

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Jamie Chadwick explained just how desperate George Russell is to become a champion. Chadwick and Russell, who used to be colleagues at Williams, remain good friends.

Russell has never finished higher than fourth in the championship (2022 and, as it stands, 2025), but he’s just bagged his fifth career victory and 23rd podium at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Mercedes have largely underdelivered in the ground-effect era, but Russell has compared himself to Michael Schumacher, who had to wait until his fifth season at Ferrari to win the championship.

If the rumours about Mercedes’ 2026 engine are true, then he could be the early frontrunner. He already has everything in place behind the scenes.

“I cannot express how impressive George is,” Chadwick said. “I spend a lot of time with him, and every year he becomes more and more impressive. He’s evolving, maturing, developing and with that, becoming so much more aware of what he needs to work on and how he works on it.

“He’s got this intensity around racing, it’s his life. Everything he wants is to win a world championship.

“That leads to this hard-working nature, but it’s not just in the car. It’s outside of the car. Everything that he does is very much centred around making sure that he can just be in the best position possible to win races.”

Is George Russell going to become F1’s Andy Murray?

Damon Hill called Russell ‘Verstappen-esque’ after his perfect weekend at Marina Bay. Ironically, the Dutchman has played a role in the delay surrounding his rival’s contract.

It appears that Toto Wolff didn’t want to finalise his driver plans until he knew for sure that Verstappen was off the market. Since the world champion confirmed he was staying at Red Bull, the two sides have been wrangling over details like marketing commitments.

F1TV’s Lawrence Barretto fears Russell could become the Andy Murray of racing. The consensus is that Murray would have won more Grand Slams had he not competed in the same era as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – three of the all-time greats.

Russell has already seen off Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, but Verstappen remains a problem. If he doesn’t end up taking his Mercedes seat, beating him in multiple seasons is the ultimate challenge.