George Russell: Norris and McLaren are the favorites of the stage.
George Russell considers McLaren and Lando Norris as the favorites for the Monza race. The Mercedes driver predicts that four teams – McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull Racing – will compete for victory in Italy.
George Russell: "I think we can look at last weekend in Zandvoort in different ways. Perhaps McLaren didn't show everything their car is capable of on Friday, and then realized its potential on Saturday. Or, conversely, we performed better in the sprint than our car allowed.
If we look at how strong Lando Norris and McLaren are right now, I think it's fair to call them the main favorites. McLaren is currently the team to beat.
We understand that we are still behind most of our competitors in terms of updates, but we hope to be ahead in a couple of races.
Overall, after Zandvoort, we have very good impressions from the weekend. Second and third places in the race and a sprint victory are probably even more than our car's actual speed allowed.
This weekend, we will likely have more chances than in the last two races, where the results depended more on the chassis than on the power unit.
But we must not forget that Red Bull also has a very powerful power unit. We know that Monza should suit them better than other teams. Ferrari has new updates, so I think we can expect a battle between four teams this weekend.
Everything is so tight right now that even one-tenth of a second in qualifying can determine the fate of several positions, and that can influence the outcome of the fight for the podium."
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George Russell: Norris and McLaren are the favorites of the stage.
George Russell considers McLaren and Lando Norris as the favorites for the Monza stage. At the same time, the Mercedes driver predicts that four teams will contend for victory in Italy.