Next year there will of course be a big change in the regulations in F1 and I think it’s good that the performance of teams and cars is being “reset”. It’s a fresh start for everyone on the grid, me included, and that could help George joining the team a lot, but I think he’ll do really well at Mercedes and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
The Russian GP was a really good race. I think we’ve had a couple of races now that weren’t the kind of “normal” we’re used to and that made F1 really exciting. The weather did its part, but we have certainly seen the midfield teams gradually catching up with the bigger teams this year. Qualifying itself in Russia was interesting – a really good session with rain halfway through – and then a huge wrench was thrown into the factory in Sunday’s race when it rained on the final laps.
SOCHI, RUSSIA – SEPTEMBER 26: Lando Norris from Great Britain drives the (4) McLaren F1 Team MCL35M Mercedes and Kimi Raikkonen from Finland drives the (7) Alfa Romeo Racing C41 Ferrari during the F1 Grand Prix of Russia at the Sochi Autodrom on September 26th. , 2021 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)Bryn Lennon
And in that sense, I feel for Lando Norris: I think he deserves the win. It’s one of those situations where, I think, for every driver in that position, you lead the race, it starts to rain and you take the risk of not going to the pits and staying outside, otherwise you give up the track position and risk losing the race. Obviously, that risk didn’t pay off for McLaren and Lando, but you can’t beat him for trying. It could have been very different on another day. I’m sure of one thing, he’ll get another chance in the future. He’s in really good shape right now. You can see how confident he is with this car. It is impressive.
The championship fight escalates very nicely. Both Monza and Sochi have always been tracks that Mercedes favor – traditionally they went very well there – so it is a real result for us to get out of these two races without a major drop in points. It’s incredibly close now between first and second place and I really have a feeling that it will be a battle to see who will be ahead in the next few races.
MONZA, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 12: Max Verstappen from the Netherlands drives the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda and Lewis Hamilton from Great Britain drives the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes W12 accident during the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at the Autodromo di Monza on September 12, 2021 in Monza, Italy. (Photo by Peter Van Egmond / Getty Images)Getty Images
The post Alex Albon: “Max and Lewis are no longer ready to give in on the track” first appeared on monter-une-startup.
