Lando Norris reveals details of F1 Drivers’ Whatsapp Group ‘headed’ by George Russell

Lando Norris has come forth with some more details about the F1 Drivers' WhatsApp group chat, which he thinks George Russell is like the 'head of'.

Lando Norris reveals details of F1 Drivers’ Whatsapp Group ‘headed’ by George Russell

Mercedes' George Russell (L) and McLaren's Lando Norris (R)

At least because of the current arrangement, there are only 20 Formula 1 drivers, apart from reserve/test drivers, etc. Motorsport is unique in this way – every racing series is somewhat different. Unlike sports such as football or basketball, in F1, there’s only a limited amount of competitors. It’s hard to say if there’s a ‘sense of camaraderie between them – not all of them are friends, or even get along with each other. But they do have many shared experiences.

Many of them grew up competing against each other in karting and other junior racing series. Alpine teammates, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, both grew up in Normandy and competed against each other. Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen also competed against each other. So did Lando Norris and George Russell – who have both recently discussed that there is, in fact, an F1 Drivers’ WhatsApp group.

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Speaking to the Fast and the Curious podcast, Russell had said: “There is a WhatsApp group. I mean it’s not like we’re sending banter in there day after day but there are occasions where something may have happened on track and suddenly people are sending memes in and whatever and it gets a bit out of control.” Now, his old pal, Norris, has revealed further details about the group.

Read More: “We still believe we can score points,” Lando Norris remains optimistic despite disastrous Bahrain GP

Lando Norris: James Hunt is on the F1 Drivers’ Group Photo

Lando Norris
Lando Norris

So the group exists. There is one rather intriguing, but on-the-surface detail that Lando Norris recently revealed on ‘The Fast and the Curious‘ podcast. They have 1976 world champion, and rather infamous playboy, James Hunt on the group photo. Norris said, laughing: “James Hunt as the group photo. It’s true [the group exists].” As expected, it’s not particularly a ‘friend group’. “It’s not so much like ‘hey, we’re all mates’.”

The McLaren man continued: “It’s a lot more for talking about things that can help us as drivers in terms of rules, and regulations, it’s more like how can we represent ourselves? I don’t know how much [George] revealed, he’s like the head of it.” when asked who used the group the most, the Briton added: “It’s a little bit of everyone. We are all kind of chatting and working together to come up with different ideas. We’ve got Esteban [Ocon], we got Zhou [Guanyu], we’ve got Alex [Albon]. Everyone chats in it [but] I can’t find any memes.”

One can expect that matters like the ban on drivers making ‘political, personal or religious’ statements would be discussed there, as would be any regulation changes. But it may ultimately be more similar to a work group, than a group of old buddies.

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