George Russell and Lando Norris are hoping that they will be able to race each other in 2022. The pair were rivals during their Formula 2 days, and went head-to-head for the title in the 2018 season. It was eventually Russell who won the championship, but both made the step up to F1 in 2019. Since then, Russell has mostly been racing towards the back of the field with Williams, whilst Norris has battled nearer to the front in the McLaren. But with Russell making the step up to Mercedes this year, he is looking forward to hopefully going wheel-to-wheel with Norris, though admits that he is expecting several drivers and teams to pose a challenge as the sport introduces a raft of new regulations. "It's exciting," Russell told media including RacingNews365.com . "I think we're all excited for the new challenges of next year and what's faced. "Obviously, Lando has been a bit higher up the grid than me over the last three years, so hopefully we can be up there fighting together, because I'm sure also Lando wants to be fighting for victories and championships as well. "I think there's probably four teams, eight drivers, who will back themselves to win. Probably more - five teams, 10 drivers, who truly think they can have a good shot at winning. "So I think that is exciting, the unknown of what is to come."
"If we're racing Mercedes, we've had a good off-season"
Meanwhile, Norris is simply hoping that McLaren can take the step forward to be battling regularly with the front-runners. The team secured a number of podium finishes in 2021, and Norris also narrowly missed out on clinching a debut F1 victory at the Russian Grand Prix. However, they slipped from P3 in 2020 to P4 in the Constructors' Championship by the end of the season. Norris thinks that, if the Woking-based squad find themselves fighting with Mercedes, they can be pleased with the progress made in the off-season. "First of all, I hope we get to go wheel-to-wheel," the Briton explained. "If we go wheel-to-wheel [with Russell] then I think we've had a good start to 2022. Or he's had a bad one! "I think, of course, we're going to be optimistic and hope we can start the season well, and [hope] we can be closer to Ferrari, and Mercedes, and Red Bull, I guess especially those final two. "So we'll wait and see. Time's going to tell. I don't think anyone really knows where anyone's going to be at the beginning of next season. "But we've definitely got some ground to make up and it's not going to be easy, although it's new rules and everything, to make up all of it for next year. "If I'm racing George, then we're racing Mercedes, and if we're racing Mercedes then I think we've had a good off-season."
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