Lando Norris says he has no sympathy for the struggles that led to Daniel Ricciardo’s teammate early departure from McLaren.
On Wednesday, Ricciardo and McLaren confirmed they would part ways at the end of 2022, a year before his contract expires.
McLaren’s decision was ultimately driven by Riccioardo’s disappointing form this year – the Australian was 57 points behind Norris when he left F1.
Norris expects more from the eight-time F1 champion.
“I guess I was surprised because when Daniel came into the team everyone expected more. I’m sure even himself he expected more from himself,” Norris said on Thursday. “When you look at it that way, I’m surprised.
“Not that I dig deep or anything but when you look at the results… if you want two people to be on the same level you’re not surprised. It’s hard to know when to call it, I guess. what they did.”
Asked if he sympathized with Riccio’s difficult season, Norris said: “I hate to say it, but I would say no.
“People are probably going to hate me for saying it but it’s hard because I never know if I’m going to run into that in the future with this car or with another team or whatever, so I never want to contradict my future self, but I’m just focused on driving my car.”
Norris said F1 drivers must focus on themselves due to the nature of the championship.
“My job isn’t to focus on other people, and I’m not a driving coach, I’m not here to help and do those things. I’m here to give my best and that’s it, it’s hard when people start to have the expectation that it’s my job to do other things, help and describe this and do it when it really isn’t.
“There is also the case that if I don’t do well for a couple of years it could also be the end of my career, the end of my driving in Formula 1, so I have to focus to myself for the most part Every driver has to adapt to the situations they find themselves in and that’s what I feel I have to do.
“It’s not a car that I can just jump in and feel like I can fly with and perform exactly how I want to. At the beginning of the year, Daniel performed better than me – in the tests. pre-season and stuff – and it looks like he can just go out of his way and drive the car the way he wants to, and I have to start learning a new way of driving compared to the way I’m used to driving. car in the past few years.
“So I feel like I’ve had to do the job of adapting and so does he, but I don’t feel like for any driver you’re going to have to sympathize with them because they haven’t been able to do a good job. job.”
