Lando Norris claims Oscar Piastri has already pushed him harder at McLaren inside three races than Daniel Ricciardo managed in two years.
Ricciardo was axed from McLaren before the expiry of his contract at the end of last year after a dismal two seasons that consisted of him being heavily outperformed by Norris.
Aside from scoring McLaren’s only win since 2012 at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, Ricciardo amassed only 152 points compared to Norris’ 282 across their two seasons partnered together.
With Ricciardo failing to adapt to a McLaren car on either side of a regulation change, the British team opted to negotiate a termination of the agreement and pursued his highly-rated Australian compatriot as his replacement.
Despite being equipped with a difficult car, Piastri has been on the pace from the outset and out-qualified Norris in Saudi Arabia on his way to a first appearance in Q3.
After early contact derailed a top 10 starting position in Saudi Arabia, Norris and Piastri both made use of a chaotic ending to the Australian Grand Prix to bag McLaren 14 points.
“He’s doing a very good job, honestly,” Norris told Channel 4 about Piastri’s adaptation after the race. “I feel so weird talking like I’m the older guy, the more experienced one!
“But he’s doing a very good job, handling the pressure extremely well I would say, I think that is something that is very strong that I’ve seen in him.
“He’s calm, he’s controlled and he’s quick, so I feel like he’s got a lot of what you need and he’s pushing me more than what I’ve had the last few years, which is a good thing for us as a team as well.
“So, a good job, in the points today and not an easy weekend,” he continued. “He went up from 16th to eighth, so a good day for him too.”
Having sat bottom of the pile after two rounds and endured its worst opening to an F1 season in 27 years, McLaren’s double points haul in Melbourne has elevated it to fifth.
The Woking-based outfit aims to bring a huge upgrade package to the next round in Azerbaijan after openly admitting it underdelivered on initial targets for its MCL60 car.
A late switch in development focus midway through the winter was responsible for McLaren’s sluggish start but the team is optimistic that it can recover the lost ground.
While it has been clear in underlining that the Baku upgrades will not manifest a B-spec car, McLaren is pinning its hopes on the revised parts propelling it up the order.
The British squad’s top brass highlighted during the winter that its goal was to possess a top-four car on the grid after slipping to fifth in the standings behind Alpine in the 2022 season.
However, Aston Martin’s surprise emergence as a podium-contending force means McLaren has its work cut out to achieve its pre-season target.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo made his first public appearance at an F1 weekend since his McLaren exit in Australia in his role as Red Bull’s reserve driver for the season.
The eight-time F1 race winner admitted that experiencing the buzz of his home event again served to reignite his desire to return to the grid full-time next year.
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