Lando Norris fires dig at George Russell over McLaren remarks ahead of Chinese GP and calls out Mercedes driver

George Russell has been called out by Lando Norris over comments he made at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

The season-opening race of 2025 was won by Norris and McLaren, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen in second and Russell's Mercedes in third place.

Norris qualified on pole and led the race from the front, only losing it when he pitted for intermediates early and before other teams.

He perfected three separate safety car restarts before holding off Verstappen in the closing laps to win his fifth Grand Prix.

After the race, Norris took aim at third-placed Russell over comments he had made before the race began.

The Mercedes driver claimed that McLaren could already focus on developing their 2026 car to meet new regulations, such is their pace advantage over their rivals in 2025.

He said: "They're in such an advantage, because they can stop development now and go fully on '26, and it's difficult to overcome that gap.

"If you've got a six-tenth advantage at the start of the year, nobody finds six tenths throughout the year. So, McLaren is in prime position for now and the future."

But Norris rubbished Russell's claims and said that McLaren still had many things to work on with their 2025 car.

"I saw George made some comments that Mercedes can just turn our focus to 2026.

"If that's their mentality then wonderful, because that's not the mentality to have. Sorry mate.

"We've got lots of work to do on our car still. If you relax in this position, you fail. In Formula 1, if you start thinking things are good and groovy, that's when you get caught."

McLaren, Mercedes and all other eight teams will be under greater scrutiny at the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix, with the FIA imposing stricter limits on the slot gap between the two rear wing panels.

While there could previously be a gap of 2mm between both, that has now been reduced to 0.5mm (0.75mm in China) after the FIA reviewed footage of the Australian Grand Prix. According to AutoRacer, no specific team is being targeted as part of the new regulation.

An FIA statement on the matter, published on Tuesday, reads: "When 75kg of load is applied to the rear wing, the slot gap must not vary by more than 0.5mm instead of 2mm (a temporary 0.25mm tolerance for Shanghai).

"Footage analysed from the Australian GP showed enough deformation to justify stronger controls. All cars in Melbourne passed the previous static test and were deemed fully legal."