Lando Norris believes that Daniel Ricciardo will contribute to the progress of his new team with his winning F1 experience, and he is also looking forward to being able to compete against one of the best Formula 1 drivers in the same car.
Norris will be driving his third F1 season this year, and for the first time his teammate will not be Sainz who moved to Ferrari but Ricciardo who is coming to McLaren after two seasons at Renault.
With Ricciardo, McLaren will have a driver who has won the F1 race for the first time since 2018, after Alonso left the team, and Norris believes Ricciardo’s winning experience will help McLaren.
“Ricciardo will give us a different perspective around a lot of things, I’m sure some of the comments will be similar to Carlos because he also drove for Renault and probably a lot of features are similar,” Norris told Autosport.
“Carlos often mentioned what things were like while driving for Renault and how the team reacted in different circumstances. A lot of the knowledge that drivers have relates to the way teams work, I learned that from Carlos.”
“Daniel has worked with Red Bull and he knows how to win races, he knows how a team wins and what kind of car he needs for that. I think that’s something Carlos doesn’t have.”
“It will be very good when Daniel arrives, and fresh ideas that will help the team progress.”
Norris beat Sainz in 2020 F1 qualifying head-to-head 9-8, but finished behind him in the drivers ’standings despite securing the podium in the first race of the season in Austria.
The young British driver is looking forward to competing with one of the best drivers in today’s Formula 1 who beat Vettel in Red Bull in 2014 and was very competitive against Verstappen in the same car.
“It’s going to be nice to work with someone else and learn some things,” Norris said.
“But to face a driver who has won races and who people say is one of the best, it’s going to be a good chance for me to compare myself to him and work with him as a winner.”
