Lando Norris has explained that rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri has ‘pushed him more’ than former partner Daniel Ricciardo, suggesting that his battle at McLaren this year has given him similar stress to Lewis Hamilton with George Russell at Mercedes.
Norris comfortably had the measure of Ricciardo during the duo’s time as team-mates at McLaren, but since Piastri has made the step up to a full-time F1 drive in 2023, the young Aussie has placed him under plenty of strain.
While Norris has still registered the majority of the team’s points tally, Piastri’s first podium in F1 at the Japanese Grand Prix was a warning shot that the gap between the pair is narrowing as McLaren’s performance relative to the rest of the grid improves.
Speaking to RacingNews365 about his experience with Piastri, Norris said: “I’ve said previously, I’m not afraid to say it, he’s pushed me more than the last couple of years. He’s just adapted quicker to driving the car. And therefore he’s pushed me more.
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“It’s a good thing for me because you do want somebody who can push you, someone you can learn from. You’re always going to be learning.” Norris then went on to explain the link between his stress this year and that of the McLaren duo.
“I’m sure now Lewis is learning a lot from George,” Norris continued. “George is doing a very good job. He beats him some of the time. And I’m sure Lewis is looking at the data sometimes going ‘damn, I got to do this to be better’.
“And it’s not like, he can just go ‘yeah, I can do that’. It just doesn’t work. It’s always going to be difficult for everyone.”
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There are indeed similarities between the driver line-ups at McLaren and Mercedes this season with the lead drivers Norris and Hamilton both having the upper hand most of the time, but receiving constant and steady pressure from their younger team-mates.
Hamilton is currently sitting third in the Drivers’ Championship standings following an outstandingly consistent campaign, putting him 75 points clear of Russell, who has lost out on plenty of points due to a couple of costly mistakes in Australia and Japan.
Norris, meanwhile, sits level on 115 points with Russell heading into the final six rounds of the season, 58 points above his rookie team-mate who has risen to ninth place in the standings.
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