Lando Norris takes a subtle dig at Ex-McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo

With Daniel Ricciardo unable to adapt to a McLaren on either side of a rule change, the British team chose to negotiate a contract termination. They sought his highly rated Australian peer as his successor.

Apart from winning McLaren's first race since 2012 at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, Ricciardo scored 152 points to Lando Norris' 282 in their two seasons together.

Despite having an extremely difficult car, Oscar Piastri has been on the pace from the start, out-qualifying Norris in Saudi Arabia on his route to his maiden Q3 appearance.

After an early collision wrecked a top-10 start in Saudi Arabia, Norris and Piastri both took advantage of a chaotic finish to the Australian Grand Prix to earn 14 points for McLaren.

Piastri's performance at McLaren has been praised by Lando Norris, who claims the former has pushed him harder in three races than Daniel Ricciardo had in two years. McLaren hopes to get a significant boost in Azerbaijan following a double points finish in Melbourne, which moved them up to sixth in the standings.

"...He’s calm, he’s controlled, and he’s quick, so I feel like he’s got a lot of what you need and he’s pushing me more than what I’ve had the last few years, which is a good thing for us as a team as well," Norris said.

After being at the bottom of the standings after two rounds and having had its worst start to an F1 season in 27 years, McLaren's points gain in Melbourne boosted it to fifth place.

After publicly acknowledging that it fell short of early expectations with its MCL60, the Woking-based team plans a massively improved package for the next round in Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, in his role as Red Bull's third driver for the season, Ricciardo made his first public appearance at an F1 weekend since leaving McLaren in Australia. The eight-time F1 race winner admitted that the excitement of his home event rekindled his ambition to return to the grid full-time next year.

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Lando Norris refers to Lewis Hamilton as an "eight-time world champion"

Lewis Hamilton

The problematic 2021 Abu Dhabi finale has made headlines again in recent days. First, when controversial former FIA racing director Michael Masi returned to the F1 paddock during the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

The controversial topic of that incredible end in the desert resurfaced recently when Hamilton was introduced as an "eight-time world champion" at a Mercedes-sponsored event in Malaysia.

In a recent Twitch stream, Lando Norris points to a helmet given to him by Hamilton and says:

"...Here is when Lewis won his eighth world champ..."

Norris immediately realized his mistake and broke into hysterical laughter.