George Russell ribs Lando Norris for going ‘backwards’ in grands prix
George Russell and Lando Norris share a joke at the British Grand Prix. Silverstone July 2022.
George Russell landed a dig in jest at Lando Norris for going “backwards” in grand prix with the McLaren driver calling his rival a “teacher’s pet”.
No, it had nothing to do any on-track tension but rather the two scoring one another for the EA Sports’ F1 23’s driver ratings.
The ratings take into account four different aspects, which combined given the overall ranking, starting with experience, racecraft, which EA defines as “the driver’s ability to work their way through the pack and finish in a higher position than where they started”, awareness and finally pace.
Despite the long-time friends and rivals having made their debuts together at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, Russell gave himself a 72 because he’s “a bit older” while Norris got a 70. F1 23 gave them both 76.
Moving onto racecraft, Norris told his compatriot: “I normally always qualify so well…”
“And go backwards,” chirped Russell with Norris accepting that with a “yeah”.
But then asking “if George crashed much”, the Mercedes driver replied: “I don’t think I crashed that much, but I’ve actually shunted a few times in F1 so I think you’ll be higher than me here.”
It was an 85 for Norris, an 83 for Russell, with the game awarding them 91 and 87 respectively.
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As for awareness, Norris admitted he “sees the stewards a lot, but for stupid stuff” while Russell was happy to report he didn’t have any penalty points. That had Norris calling him a “goodie, goodie” and a “teacher’s pet”.
They scored one another 79, with F1 23 awarding Norris 79 and Russell 83.
Finally, coming to pace, Norris wanted to know Russell’s qualifying ratio to his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
The 2022 Sao Paulo GP winner replied: “To Lewis? Five-two.”
Norris gave him a 90, Russell matched that and F1 23 went with 91.
All in all Norris pipped Russell with an overall ratings by a single point, 89 to 88 despite never having won a Formula 1 race.
Summing it up Norris told Russell: “If we were racing, I’d beat you… but end up at the stewards.”
The banter between George and Lando is top notch ?
Other highlights include @LandoNorris calling @GeorgeRussell63 a 'teacher's pet' and ribbing him over his rating ???#F1 #F123 @EASPORTSF1 pic.twitter.com/kgZ6N4cXYW
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 13, 2023
