McLaren should ignore George Russell's suggestion to pause work on its dominant 2025 car, insists championship leader Lando Norris.
Mercedes driver Russell believes Norris is well-placed to hold onto his early lead throughout this season.
"McLaren has such a big gap to the others that they could stop development already and focus completely on 2026," Russell said in Melbourne.
"If you have a six-tenths lead at the beginning of the year, nobody overcomes that."
Every team in the pitlane faces the tricky balancing act of refining their current car while gearing up for the all-new 2026 regulations.
Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko left Melbourne upbeat, predicting McLaren's edge could shrink within the first 3-5 races of 2025.
"Max (Verstappen) was three tenths off in qualifying," Norris said after clinching the Australian GP. "Last year, we were much further off and ended up with the best car by the end of the season.
"I know George made some comments that we can just turn our focus to 2026," he continued. "If that's their (Mercedes') 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."
Russell, however, retorted: "They look pretty good and groovy at the moment. So yeah - we'll see."
