F1 2023: Lando Norris says McLaren may struggle for wins and believes Aussie Oscar Piastri will push him
Oscar Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris has delivered an honest appraisal of McLaren’s prospects. But he is bullish on the Aussie F1 star.
Motorsport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Motorsport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
McLaren star Lando Norris expects his new teammate Oscar Piastri to force him to “push the limit” when the Australian joins the F1 grid, but he has delivered an honest appraisal of the team’s prospects for 2023.
After farewelling one Australian teammate in Daniel Ricciardo and now ushering in another, Norris said Piastri had been brought into the team to push both himself and the squad.
Norris outperformed Ricciardo last year, finishing seventh in the drivers’ standings, while Ricciardo finished 11th as he lost his seat to his young countryman.
Entering his fifth season at McLaren, Norris expected 21-year-old Piastri’s arrival to help drive the team.
“The reason Oscar is here is to push me more, is to push the team more. That’s why he got brought into the team,” Norris said.
“Absolutely, I think that’s going to help us as a team, it’s going to force me to push the limit that little bit more.
“It’s obviously something I was doing last year, but it might just be that he is able to push me more in different areas of my driving and that should only be able to help us take a step forward as a team and to also score more points as a team by the end of the season.”
Norris said Piastri’s record entering Formula One was as good as any driver before him after winning three championships in as many years before his Alpine reserve driver role in 2022.
While he acknowledged Piastri’s competition would not be easy, he said would relish the challenge of having a younger, hungry rookie alongside him.
“Working with Oscar, absolutely, it is a pleasure for me to be able to work alongside him, he is obviously a guy who has done insanely well and probably had one of the best track records ever before getting to Formula One,” Norris, 23, said.
“So I’m not expecting it to be easy in any regard, and he is obviously coming in young and with the mentality of wanting to come in and do extremely well from the beginning.
“But I think that can only be a good thing for me, as much as I always want an easy teammate, I also do enjoy the competitive side and that’s why I love Formula One.
“I enjoy the competition, I enjoy getting pushed and he is a lovely guy from what I know, from what I have seen so far and spoken to him about. He is a guy that is very down to earth and I enjoy working with people that are like that.”
After McLaren finished fifth in the constructors’ championship last year, Norris did not expect the team to be fighting for too many race wins in 2023.
But he said the team needed to position itself as the best of the rest behind the top three of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
“I don’t see us being able to fight for wins much this season, you never know and there is always the odd race where you could have that opportunity, but this year we just need to give ourselves a very solid position to go into next year,” Norris said.
“Hopefully, we are the leading team of the midfield and we can be the pioneers of leading the way to closing that gap to the top three teams and that can hopefully be done from 24 to 25.”
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said Piastri had “extreme talent” and said the way he had carried himself throughout last year’s contract saga had confirmed his strength.
“His track record through the junior formulas is very impressive, very similar to Lando in winning the majority of his championships his first time around, which is always a good sign of someone who has got extreme talent,” Brown said.
“He is a very serious, focused young man. I spent my first part of getting to know him throughout the middle of last year and I thought the way he conducted himself and carried himself in light of what were inappropriate and inaccurate accusations around, I guess you would say his loyalty, which he was now proven to be he was fully within his right to look after his career and sign with McLaren.
“Because that’s a lot of pressure to put on a young driver and I thought the way he carried himself … what we have seen is that’s how he carries himself in his day-to-day business – very focused, very inquisitive and very calm.”
The next Ricciardo? Piastri’s goal to emulate Daniel
Young gun Oscar Piastri has vowed to do his “country proud” when he becomes the next Australian to take his place on the Formula One grid, saying his year on the sidelines had made him even hungrier to taste success.
Speaking at the launch of McLaren’s 2023 challenger, the Melbourne racer said he had a “big sense of pride” in being Australia’s only driver on the F1 grid this year and he was ready to embrace the “chaos” of his home Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Piastri enters F1 as one of the hottest talents in the sport, having won the F3 and F2 championships in consecutive years – a feat only previously matched by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell.
But he was forced to sit on the sidelines as a reserve driver for Alpine last year after he was unable to secure a Formula One drive, which most experts agreed he deserved.
After signing with McLaren as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement, the 21-year-old now finds himself as the only Australian on the grid after the eight-time Grand Prix winner returned to Red Bull as its test driver for 2023.
Following in the footsteps of Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, his manager Mark Webber and Ricciardo, Piastri said he was determined to be the next Australian to taste F1 success.
“It is nice to be the next Aussie into F1, there is usually only one of us at a time, so to be the Aussie on the grid now is a special feeling,” Piastri said.
“There is a big sense of pride being the only Aussie on the grid, but that’s not to say that I wouldn’t enjoy having fellow Aussies on the grid there, too.
“Looking back on the past …. Alan Jones and Sir Jack are two greats of Australian motorsport and Mark, obviously there is a personal connection there being my manager, and obviously Daniel with his race wins, too.
“I want to be the next Aussie who has got success in the sport ….it is an inspiration for me to do my country proud.”
As he closes in on his childhood dream of lining up on the F1 grid, Piastri will aim to shake off his “rust” after a long spell without racing at F1 testing in Bahrain next week ahead of the season-opening Grand Prix at the Sakhir circuit.
Piastri conceded his time on the sidelines last year had not been ideal and was keeping his expectations for his debut season in check as he fast-tracked his learning in the car.
“I think it does (make you hungrier). Obviously as a racing driver I want to be racing all the time, so having the year without racing was obviously not ideal,” Piastri said.
“But I think I tried to make the most of what I had last year and tried to learn as much as I could about the F1 environment outside of driving.
“In terms of results (this year) there are not really any set expectations …. I am going to try to learn as much as I can and get up to speed as quickly as I can, (but) there is going to be an element of rust there in the beginning having not raced for a while now.
“It’s been nearly 18 months since I last raced now, so just getting back out on track and doing what I love is the most exciting part for me and being able to say that my job is an F1 driver, it’s a pretty cool line to be able to say.”
Piastri’s signing with McLaren came after he rejected Alpine’s announcement that he would graduate to its F1 line-up to replace the Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso, leading to a contract row and claims of disloyalty from his former team.
The 21-year-old denied suggestions the manner of his Alpine departure – and subsequent spotlight – had added more pressure on his debut season, but his success in the junior categories would.
“My objectives and goals have not changed in any way,” Piastri said.
“I think regardless of how that ended last year there is probably an outside expectation with the junior career that I had as well.
“I think there is a bit of expectation from a few angles, but I don’t think that adds to it.
“I am well and truly past that now, I’m focused on starting my career at McLaren and making sure I’m up to speed as quickly as I can.”
HYPE AT HOME
Piastri will have two races abroad in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia before he returns home to race in the Australian Grand Prix for the first time.
After getting a taste of the focus he will face when he attended last year’s event as a reserve driver, Piastri was expecting this year’s race to be “nuts”.
“I went last year to the Grand Prix in Melbourne as a reserve driver and I have got somewhat of an expectation of what to expect,” Piastri said.
“Melbourne last year was already a bit of an experience …. so I am expecting it to be pretty nuts.
“I know it’s an even bigger crowd than last year, which is awesome, so it will be chaos but that’s always a good thing.
“It will be special, I think being a Melbourne boy as well, that’s a nice story there. I remember when I was a kid being able to hear the cars from where my parents used to live six or seven kilometres from the track, so I have got some special memories there.
“It’s going to be my first race in Australia outside of go karts, full stop. So it’s been a while since I’ve raced at home.”
“It’s definitely going to be an experience I will never forget in Melbourne.”
NEW TEAMMATE
Piastri said he and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, had been “getting on well” and expected the pair to work together to push the team forward.
“I think as a driver in F1, the first comparison I guess is your teammate because we are in the same car, so that will be the comparison there,” Piastri said.
“Our relationship has been good so far, I don’t see why that would change.
“I think we will get along well and try to push the team forward together because that’s ultimately what we want to try and do.
“We want to be back to winning races and obviously there will be comparisons with teammates.”
Piastri conceded next week’s one-off pre-season Bahrain test was not much time for him to adjust to the new McLaren car, but backed the team to help get him “up to speed”.
“It’s obviously not much time to get used to the car and obviously it’s a brand-new car for the team as well,” Piastri said.
“It’s the same for all of us. Obviously as a rookie, it’s a bit tougher coming in, but that’s one of the challenges I have to face.
“With the team around me we will try and get up to speed as quickly as we can and learn as much as possible in that day and a half.”
PHOTOBOMB
But Piastri said the passenger was not Ricciardo.
“I know there was a photo of me in a McLaren with someone that people thought was Daniel but it wasn’t, it was just one of my mates,” Piastri said.
“We (himself and Ricciardo) caught up on the phone, through texts at the end of last year but nothing more than that.”
More Coverage
Originally published as F1 2023: Lando Norris says McLaren may struggle for wins and believes Aussie Oscar Piastri will push him
‘It’s a joke’: F1 fans’ fury over Aussie event
Formula 1 fans hoping to get their hands on tickets to the 2025 Australian Grand Prix have been left disappointed and angry after a change to the ticket purchasing process.
‘Elbows out’: Lowndes hails young gun ahead of historic Bathurst
After a best-ever finish for a Supercars endurance wildcard at last month’s Sandown 500, Supercars great Craig Lowndes has had his say on the wildcard’s prospects at the Bathurst 1000 and how he rates his young co-driver.