Lando Norris on McLaren life with ‘contrast of Australian’ Oscar Piastri

Lando Norris has said working with Oscar Piastri is having a “contrast of Australian” in comparison to having Daniel Ricciardo alongside him in the garage, but he is enjoying the dynamic with his new team-mate this season.

Piastri was signed to replace his compatriot after Ricciardo saw his contract ended a year early by the after two underwhelming years with the team, win at Monza aside, with the ex-Formula 2 and Formula 3 champion joining for his rookie year.

But this season, McLaren have struggled for pace overall, finding it difficult to unlock potential from the MCL60 for much of the year so far, with P17 and P19 on the road being the sum of their work in Miami after Norris was bumped off the road by Nyck de Vries, and Piastri suffered brake-by-wire issues.

While McLaren have endured a difficult start to the year on a wider scale, the Briton has enjoyed working with his new colleague in the garage, and is a relatively similar relationship to that he enjoyed with Ricciardo – even though their personalities are somewhat different.

What he did add, though, is that the 22-year-old from Melbourne has been “pushing me a little bit more” than Ricciardo was able to do in his time with the team.

“Honestly, just as a genuine, genuine answer, it’s not too different,” Norris told reporters when asked how his rapport with Piastri stacks up to what he had with Ricciardo.

“我认为我是怎么想的orked last year, and how I worked with Daniel, it’s not too different – not too many things change.

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“Maybe they lean on me a little bit more for the knowledge of how we were in previous years, to look at the development from last year to this year and things like that.

“But, apart from that, you both give your sides of the feelings and the story of what’s going on to the car, what you want from the car, which aligns very well.

“我不会说我们有相同的驾驶风格,布鲁里溃疡t our comments and complaints are generally always the same. So, I think that’s a good thing.

“He’s a lovely guy, down to earth, normal guy, hard worker, and so on. So, it’s good, fun. Different, I guess to Daniel, I feel like a bit of a contrast of Australian but still good fun.

“He’s very fast at the same time, so probably been pushing me a little bit more than the past couple years. So yeah, enjoyable.”