Lando Norris heaps praise on McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri 

McLaren driver Lando Norris recently heaped praise on his teammate Oscar Piastri, terming the young Aussie as 'respectful' and 'hard working'.

The Aussie has impressed everyone with his performances in his rookie season against a very competent driver like Lando Norris. Since The British GP in Silverstone, Piastri has always been on par with his more experienced teammate on the track.

Speaking with Speedcafe, Lando Norris said of his teammate:

“Just very good. Very good guy. He’s come in and done a very good job as a rookie in his first season of Formula 1, not done any silly things, not made any silly mistakes. [He’s a] quick learner. I think he has a lot of what you need to be a Formula 1 driver, especially smart, clever.”

He continued:

"You can tell he’s been brought up in a good way, understanding way, of scenarios he’s in, where he works. Good level of respect for everyone that he works with. Just a great guy but I don’t need to say it. I think it’s clear that he’s very fast. He’s pretty good already in what he’s done so far in Formula 1, so he’s been a great addition to the team.”

McLaren CEO gives his take on Lando Norris's public criticism of the team

McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated that the team is motivated despite Lando Norris's public bashing in recent months owing to performances in the early stages of the season.

Speaking with Motorsport.com, Brown said:

"No, we're all motivated. We kind of get happy together, we get grumpy together. So, if he's made a comment, it's consistent, it's motivating. We don't get down, we fight hard. I mean, if you look at how poor start the season was, that was hard."

Brown continued:

"Meanwhile, underneath the surface, we knew we were seeing great development in the wind tunnel, so it was like publicly taking a battering at the start of the year while knowing underneath things were actually going really well. And the team handled it really well, so we're motivated."

"We knew changes were in the works, and then data was telling us things were going to start looking up in Austria and Silverstone and they have. So. that's given us a lot of confidence that what we're seeing in data is correlating to the track, whether that's good data or bad data."

It will be interesting to see how the team performs in the second half of the season as F1 action this weekend.