Lando Norris revealed his new rookie teammate Oscar Piastri is already pushing him hard despite the early days of his Formula 1 career, keeping the highly rated Briton on his toes.
McLaren struggled in 2022 as Lando Norris was the only driver scoring points for the team, as Daniel Ricciardo struggled with the Woking F1 machinery unable to come close to his former teammate’s level, which meant he was shown the door at the end of last season with compatriot and rookie Oscar Piastri replacing him.
While Piastri has performed admirably in the junior series winning the Formula 3 and Formula 2 Title from the first time of asking, but with F1 being a different beast, the Aussie will naturally be under close monitoring to see how he performs in top flight, especially that McLaren are having another bad season with a subpar MCL60.
The team is also under new leadership as Andrea Stella replaced the Alfa Romero-bound Andreas Seidl, while the disappointing on-track performance has also prompted the management to re-shuffle the technical department ousting Technical Director James Key.
Both McLaren drivers asking for similar things from the car
But Piastri seems to be doing a decent job despite the situation at McLaren, his teammate Lando Norris full of praise for his new teammate; he said, quoted by Motorsport.com: “He’s done a very good job.
“I think he’s understood the car well, it’s obviously not an easy car to drive. For sure, I think he did a very good job in Saudi. He got into Q3, the only Q3 this year so far. So, he’s keeping me on my toes,” he added.
Norris is only happy that both he and Piastri are providing similar feedback regarding the performance of the team’s 2023 F1 car, the MCL60, something he didn’t share with Ricciardo.
“Our comments are probably a little bit more in line than what they have been in previous years,” Norris revealed. “Which again, is a good thing, just because it’s better a dynamic for keeping the focus for the engineers, the aerodynamicists, the rest of the team back in MTC [McLaren Technology Center].
“We kind of want the same anything in general and I think that’s a good thing. So, from both sides, the off-track and the on-track, it’s a good start and he’s keeping me on my toes,” the one-time polesitter concluded.