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Lando Norris feels there is one fundamental difference between his old and new Australian team-mates at McLaren in Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo.
The British driver now has Melburnian Piastri alongside him in the garage after two years of working with Perth man Ricciardo.
Whilst there is obviously a considerable gap in the experience of both, with Piastri embarking on his debut campaign whilst Ricciardo is an eight-time grand prix winner, Norris has also noticed a strikingly contrasting element to their characters.
“He’s quiet,” assessed Norris. “I think he’s a little bit the opposite of Daniel but, of course, this is his first year in Formula 1.
“So there’s a lot of pressure. It’s still a big moment for him.
“I’m sure he is looking forward to it. He’s been doing a good job for the whole team, getting some good laps in and giving good feedback.
“We’ve been getting on well so far, so looking forward to it.”
McLaren ‘struggling with so many things’ – Norris
The three days of pre-season testing recently, however, indicated this could be a tough first year together for Norris and Piastri.
McLaren completed the least amount of mileage of all 10 teams, amassing just 1688 kilometres. Only one other team – Alpine – clocked up less than 2000km.
Individually, only Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich accrued fewer laps than Norris and Piastri, who both had a day and a half in the car compared to a day for the Brazilian.
After conceding to missing its development targets over the winter, and encountering niggles during testing in which the MCL60 appeared to be one of the slower cars on track, Norris knows there he is facing limitations.
“There are so many things, to be honest with you, which we’ve been struggling with,” proclaimed Norris.
“I guess we’ve been exploring, trying a lot of different things with setups.
“The car looks fairly similar but there are 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 also it’s still evident where we have to focus.”
