Daniel Ricciardo recalls on his rookie season at McLaren with Lando Norris and how the young Briton compares to his previous memorable teammates throughout the years.

Lando Norris’ form in their debut season as McLaren teammates “wowed” Daniel Ricciardo.

At the halfway point of the season, Ricciardo found it difficult adapting to life at McLaren, and Norris comfortably won their qualifying (8-3) and race (9-2) head-to-heads, with Norris also achieving more than double Ricciardo’s points total.

Ricciardo’s better second half was ignited by a spectacular win in the dramatic Italian Grand Prix, which came after title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton collided, but he still finished the year about 50 points behind Norris.

Ricciardo “impressed” by Norris “pushing the scale”

When asked if he was shocked by Norris’ performance this season, Ricciardo admitted that he had no idea how far the teenager could “push the scale” before they paired 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].”

How does Norris compare to Vettel and Verstappen?

Ricciardo provided some interesting insights about how Norris compared to his prior colleagues, including four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel and 2021 title winner Verstappen.

“Off the track, everyone’s been pretty different,” Ricciardo went on to comment.

“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.”

Ricciardo then quipped: “I mean, I always see Max leaving the track earlier than us, so that’s kind of what I’m trying to say!”

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Daniel Ricciardo, F1, F1 2022, Formula 1, Formula One, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, McLaren, Sebastian Vettel