Here are your F1 news headlines on Wednesday, March 19…

Lando Norris savages George Russell’s mentality

Lando Norris has attacked George Russell’s mentality after the Mercedes driver suggested that McLaren could switch their development focus to 2026 without losing too much pace.

Speaking after the Australian Grand Prix, Russell said McLaren can already start thinking about next season because they were so much quicker than anybody else in Melbourne.

Norris, however, was quick to shoot down his fellow Brit. He said: “I know George made some comments earlier this weekend that we can just turn our focus to 2026. If that’s their mentality, wonderful, but that’s not the mentality to have. Sorry, mate.

“We know we still have a lot of work to do on this year’s car. 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.

“I do think we’re favourites because the team has done an amazing job and the car is flying, but we will have races where we struggle.”

Red Bull complained to FIA in Bahrain

It has reportedly emerged that Red Bull complained about the ‘mini-DRS’ rear wing system weeks before the Australian Grand Prix.

According to German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport, the situation was discussed between Red Bull chiefs and FIA bosses during last month’s testing days in Bahrain.

McLaren, Ferrari, Alpine and Haas were said to have cropped up in conversation, suggesting they could be hit hardest by the new technical directive at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The new restrictions mean all 10 teams will need to prepare rear wings that flex at a limit of two millimetres under a vertical load-bearing test of 75kg on the main plane.

Explaining their decision to tighten the rules, the FIA said that ‘sufficient grounds exist for a tougher test to be introduced from the forthcoming Chinese Grand Prix on the upper rear wing’.

Lewis Hamilton branded ’embarrassing’ in brutal attack

Peter Windsor, the former Williams manager, has described Lewis Hamilton’s debut Ferrari performance as ’embarrassing’ while also taking aim at his radio transmissions with race engineer Riccardo Adami.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor said: “There were a lot of weird radio transmissions going on with Ferrari, almost becoming uncomfortable with Charles Leclerc giving his engineer a hard time.

“And they were giving Lewis a lot of instructions and how to get past Alex Albon, to do with the DRS and various switches. He kept saying: ‘I can handle it, I can handle it’.

“Well, Lewis, you didn’t handle it and you never got past Alex Albon. For a Ferrari driver, admittedly in his first Grand Prix [with the team], to be outraced by Alex Albon in the Williams is a bit embarrassing, to be honest.

“I was a bit surprised that Lewis was taking a rather dogmatic approach on the radio because I’m sure on the pit wall they were thinking: ‘What’s going on here? Why can’t he get past him?’.”