After Carlos Sainz left for Ferrari in 2021, McLaren decided to bring in Daniel Ricciardo from Renault to race alongside Lando Norris. However, Ricciardo’s arrival in McLaren wasn’t a hunky-dory moment for Norris. The British driver once felt intimidated by the aura of the honey badger, revealed Charlotte Sefton, who worked for McLaren at the time.
Sefton, who works for Extreme E now, worked as McLaren’s Head of Communications during the arrival of Ricciardo. This was when she understood how nervous Norris felt upon the arrival of a 7-time race winner in the team, looking for redemption.
She said as per Ben Hunt’s Lando Norris: A Biography book,
“When Carlos left I think Lando got a bit nervous again because he was a bit like, ‘well this guy’s obviously won seven races. He’s like a known quantity and he’s got really good reputation.”
Nevertheless, Norris had a perfect support system around him to stand against Ricciardo and defeat the experienced driver, which he did for two years straight. In year 1, Ricciardo still put up a challenge of sorts in the latter stages. However, in year 2, Norris completely dominated the Perth-born driver.
As the 24-year-old showed ample maturity and composure, it impressed Sefton who believed that Norris was no more a “kiddo.”
She said, “I used to call him kiddo, in fact, I still do but that was the time when I thought this guy actually could be really good.”
How Lando Norris outperformed Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren?
Daniel Ricciardo started his McLaren stint as being the firm-favorite driver against Lando Norris. However, his on-track performance talked differently. From the very beginning, it was clear who the number one driver was going to be.
With the newfound confidence, the Briton overshadowed his veteran teammate. It was the same scenario in every race where Norris had better qualifications and race results. While the first year was somewhat decent for Ricciardo, the second year was quite miserable.
In the end, the McLaren management decided to part ways with Ricciardo at the end of the 2022 F1 season, a year before his contract with the team was to expire. Therefore, Ricciardo had to spend a few months away after finding no suitable F1 seats for 2023.
Nevertheless, the break did not last long as Daniel Ricciardo returned with AlphaTauri after the Red Bull boss replaced Nyck de Vries with him. However, the 34-year-old is still in search of redemption and confidence amid his comeback stint.
