Oscar Piastri is looking forward to working with Lando Norris next year but is under no illusions about the Briton’s position of strength inside McLaren.
Piastri will make his long-awaited Formula 1 debut next season at Woking, where he’ll displace fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren paid top dollar to end Ricciardo’s contract early and risked potential legal action from Alpine, who attempted to block Piastri’s departure via the contract recognition board, though the case was thrown out and the French team was forced to pay costs.
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Piastri will be up against Norris, who has easily dispatched Daniel Ricciardo during their two-year tenure as teammates. Last year he had the upper hand 160-115 in the championship standings; this year the margin has blown out to 100-29. Now in his fourth full-time season, he’s the undisputed centre of Woking.
It means Piastri is guaranteed to endure one of the most heavily scrutinised rookie campaigns in years.
Speaking to the In the Fast Lane podcast, Piastri said he was walking into the team with his eyes wide open about the challenge he’ll face as Norris’s teammate in his first season.
“He’s obviously proven in F1 as well that he’s a very capable driver and a strong driver as well,” Piastri said.
“I’m looking forward to being able to show what I have, but also there’s undoubtedly going to be things to learn along the way.
“I think once you start racing in F1, what you’ve done previous to that gets forgotten about very quickly.
“Once you get into F1, it’s very much about how well you can do in F1 rather than what you’ve been able to accomplish previously.:
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The feeling appears to be mutual, with Norris telling RacingNews365 that he was looking forward to working with his new teammate.
“I’m excited to work with someone different,” Norris said. “I’ve had two very different, extremely good drivers (as teammates) in my first few years in Formula 1, so I always look forward to working with someone new.
“I just hope that they’re someone you can get along with and have some fun with — [but] I won’t mind if they hate me and they never want to talk to me.”
Despite Piastri being at a four-year experience disadvantage to Norris, he’s only five months younger than his new teammate, and the Australian said he hoped they might be united in their similarities rather than just as teammates.
“Personally I don’t know Lando that well,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know him both personally and professionally.
“I’ve spoken to him a couple of times very briefly and we’ve got a few mutual friends in common, but
“I think our junior careers have been quite similar.
“I think it’ll be a good working relationship.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to work well together and hopefully bring the whole team more towards the front of the group, because that’s the aim.
“I think that is a very strong team to be able to learn from.”
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Piastri will also be grappling with debuting for one of Formula 1’s most prestigious teams, with McLaren second to only Ferrari for race wins, pole positions and drivers championships.
The team has declined in the last decade but is in what it hopes will be the final stages of its rebuild, with a new wind tunnel and simulator due to come online in the next 12 months.
With a two-year deal under his belt, Piastri is ideally placed to capitalise on any gains.
“It’s obviously something that I do have at the back of my mind, that I’m joining a very prestigious team with a lot of success and a great pedigree, so that’s exciting” he said.
“Obviously a lot of McLaren’s history and quite a lot of their winning and their championships were either when I was very young or wasn’t born at all, so of course that’s something I want — to hopefully, with the rest of the team, try and get back to those ways and get back further towards the front.
“I think the team is very motivated to try to get back towards further towards the front, as am I. I don’t want to be in F1 to make up the numbers, I want to do it as well as I can and hopefully win a few things along the way
“I think for me that’s the biggest thing I’m looking forward to, is firstly getting on the grid but also trying to write a new chapter of success for myself and also for the team.”
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But Piastri admitted he wasn’t a McLaren fan himself growing up — though it had little to do with the team itself.
“I don’t want to say I was a Red Bull fan, but I was a Mark Webber fan, because obviously he is a fellow Aussie,” he said. “I was more following Mark, and he was having a lot of success with Red Bull, so it was sort of along those lines, and then obviously Daniel came in at Red Bull as well.
“So I don’t want to say I’m a Red Bull fan, but I was an Australian fan, and they just so happened to be at Red Bull.
“But either way, I’m very happy to be driving for McLaren.”
