McLaren’s Lando Norris reveals how Oscar Piastri is ‘opposite’ of ex-teammate Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren driver Lando Norris pointed out the differences between his new teammate Oscar Piastri and his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Norris and Ricciardo were teammates for two seasons - 2021 and 2022. Despite guiding the team to their first one-two finish in a decade in 2021, it was a relatively unsuccessful partnership as Norris finished comfortably ahead of the Australian in both seasons.

Speaking to RacingNews365, Norris stated that Piastri was a lot quieter than Ricciardo. He said:

"Oscar's 11 [or] 10 years younger than Daniel, but he's quiet. I think he's a little bit of the opposite of Daniel at the minute. Of course, it's his first year in Formula 1, so there's a lot of pressure."

Lando Norris added:

"It's still a big moment [for him to be making his debut]. I feel like I'm talking like I'm super experienced, I guess I'm in my fifth year now. But it's a big moment for him, so I'm sure he looks forward to it. He's been doing a good job for the whole team. [He's] been getting some good laps in and giving good feedback. [He's a] lovely guy and we've been getting on well so far, so [I] look forward to it."

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“It’s a huge amount better than this time last year" - Lando Norris

Despite having limited runs during the official pre-season test in Bahrain last week, Lando Norris said that McLaren were in much better shape compared to the previous season, where they suffered significant brake issues.

Speaking to RaceFans, he said:

"It’s a huge amount better than this time last year. Of course a bit more focus on making sure we came here on top of everything, which I think we pretty much are. There’s been a couple of little setbacks here and there, but for the most part, the team has done a better job. We’re definitely in a better place."

"There’s still many things, to be honest, which we’ve been struggling with over the last few days. I guess we’ve been exploring – we’ve been trying a lot of different things with setups. The car looks fairly similar, but still, there’s quite a few different things on the car. Fundamentally the car handles in a reasonably similar way to last year, which is I guess good in many ways, but it is also still evident where we have to focus on."

It would be fascinating to see if Lando Norris and McLaren can bounce back and fight in midfield in the first race of the season this week.