“There are probably more similarities to Lando and Max”- Daniel Ricciardo reveals the similarities between his teammate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen

Samriddhi Jaiswal | 17/02/2022
"I think I knew Lando was good"- Daniel Ricciardo reveals how impressed he was by his teammate Lando Norris' performance

Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he was impressed by his McLaren teammate Lando Norris’ form over the 2021 championship.

2021 was the first season of Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren team alongside teammate Lando Norris. While the Australian struggled to adapt to the new team, Norris pushed the car to limits and delivered a spectacular performance.

Norris finished the 2021 season at sixth place with more than double Ricciardo’s points tally. Ricciardo admitted that he was impressed by Norris’ form throughout the season.

When asked if he was surprised by Norris over the course of the season, the Australian said that he did not know how far the young Brit could “push the scale” before they teamed up.

“In a way I was… I don’t want to say surprised, because there’s 20 of us here out of many in the world who are trying to get here, so I’m always expecting someone very talented, someone fast,” said Ricciardo.

“But I guess the scale, you’re not really sure [about it]. I’ll be honest, probably like most of the world in F1, I think I knew Lando was good, but I didn’t know where the scale went to, and I think he pushed that scale as high as it could probably go last year.”

“Again, I don’t know another word for surprise, because I wasn’t surprised. I guess I was impressed – maybe that’s a better word – with his skill, with the level he took the car to.”

“That was obviously at times for me difficult because I was not always there. But it was also encouraging to see that the car could be put to that level. It was for me to then try and figure out [how to improve].”

Also Read: Tom Holland hints at a future collab with the McLaren star Lando Norris

Daniel Ricciardo thinks Max and Lando have more similarities

Comparing Norris with his previous teammates Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, Ricciardo made some intriguing observations.

“Off the track, everyone’s been pretty different. Vettel just came out of four titles; he was the older guy in the team and I was the rookie.”

“He had a very mature approach; it was, ‘This is what I want, but he did it respectfully. He was kind of as you would expect him to be, with that German efficiency.”

“[There are] probably more similarities to Lando and Max. Lando still gets into quite a bit of detail, I would say. Max is probably more off feel; Lando might be a bit more on the technical interpretation.”

Also Read: Lando Norris reveals his role in the new season of Netflix’s Drive to Survive

Post Edited By: Samriddhi Jaiswal
Daniel Ricciardo Lando Norris

About the author

Samriddhi Jaiswal

Samriddhi Jaiswal is an F1 editor and writer at The SportsRush. She started her career as a business journalist but soon found her calling in lights out here we go! Samriddhi has been a Ferrari fan even when her interaction with F1 was occasional. Her first real experience with the thrilling sport came when Charles Leclerc clinched his iconic victory in Spa and Monza and painted the track red. Now, a Tifosi, Samriddhi is a hardcore fan of the prancing horse and can relate to the chaos within the Italian camp and also admires Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Off the track, she finds her home in books and musical instruments.

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