Oscar Piastri asserts that maintaining a “completely open” relationship with team-mate Lando Norris will be key to the McLaren Formula 1 team hitting its targets.
Piastri replaced Daniel Ricciardo last winter, but the Australian’s rookie campaign was complicated by McLaren’s admission it had missed development targets with its MCL60.
However, the phased launch of a mid-season upgrade package transcended the Woking squad’s fortunes, with Piastri recording two podiums and a Sprint race victory in Qatar.
Norris admitted that Piastri was “keeping me on my toes” in 2023 and the latter has been tipped to challenge the established Briton even more during his sophomore F1 season.
But with McLaren being touted to emerge as a contender to Red Bull in 2024, Piastri has underlined that he and Norris must continue to abide by the same “no barriers” partnership to help close the remaining gap.
“The relationship is still exactly the same,” Piastri told Autosport. “Of course, we’re not winning [titles] at the moment. We’re a lot closer than we were, but we still need to find that bit more to challenge and to beat Red Bull. So, it’s still very important for us to work together and help the team develop the car.
“The team back at MTC and the engineers here are all doing their best to try and help things. But if me and Lando have got any additional info or directions on things, then anything we can do to help is going to help both of us.
“In terms of data and stuff like that, it’s all completely open. There are no barriers or anything and that won’t change.
“We just need to make sure that our racing is respectful. But apart from that, it’s all good.”
Piastri contends that McLaren’s sluggish opening to the year didn’t alter the expectations placed on him, citing how he was always going to be compared to Norris irrespective of the team’s competitiveness.
Although the ex-Alpine prospect trailed Norris by 97 points to 205, Piastri clinched the breakthrough victory in the top flight that has eluded his more experienced team-mate.
“I was still always going to be compared to Lando, whether we were fighting for last and second last or first and second. So, those comparisons were always still going to be there,” he added.
“But maybe in terms of outright results, maybe there wasn’t quite the pressure to achieve big points or podiums or whatever straight away. But that comparison was still there.
“I was still trying to learn as quickly as I could and try and help the team the best I could. It didn’t really lessen things.”
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