They laughed and joshed like two kids preparing for a gap year job in a Melbourne pub, but behind the easy smiles lay nerves and excitement the sort of which they have never felt before.
For George Russell and Lando Norris are not off to Australia to serve stubbies to the locals but to test themselves in front of a global TV audience stretching towards 100 million.
A week today at the Albert Park circuit, Russell, who is 21, and Norris, 19, will join Lewis Hamilton as British Formula One racers, there on merit and the most exciting newcomers produced in this country since the five-time world champion made his scintillating debut on the same Tarmac 12 years ago.
George Russell and Lando Norris will make their F1 debuts at the Melbourne Grand Prix
Russell will drive for Williams and Norris for McLaren, two teams who over recent seasons have rubbed along the floor of a sport they once bestrode.
That reality should limit expectations but, naturally, the pair of them were full of joy at the prospect of realising their lives’ dreams as they sat down in a London hotel for their only national newspaper interview together.
‘It’s a bizarre feeling to be on the brink of F1 because I have been so busy since I was handed the seat last year,’ said Russell, who beat Norris into second place in the 2018 Formula Two championship. ‘You do not get time to think about it. But when you mention Formula One, it feels pretty awesome.’
A few hours after the interview they flew to Melbourne separately, wearing dark glasses, not to conceal them from recognition — that level of fame has not yet arrived — but to help get themselves accustomed to an 11-hour time difference.
Russell, from King’s Lynn, adjusted his sleep pattern back a few hours while still in England. The night before he set out he went to bed at 2am. Norris, from Glastonbury, moved his bedtime forwards.
‘I wear sunglasses at airports, not to look cool or anything,’ said Russell, a stringy 6ft 2in to Norris’s more compact 5ft 8in. ‘It is to dim the light so you are getting in the right routine. I always wear my sunnies on the flight.’
Norris said: ‘My glasses are slightly different. I have to wear a contraption. They have blue lights to help me wake up when I am on a plane and there is no proper sunlight. They can then block the light as well. They are not sunglasses — I am not that cool.’
The rookies have known each other through the years in karts and junior categories
But nothing can really prepare the duo for this week. Their families will be there in the
