Lando Norris says he will look to Max Verstappen for advice on what to expect from new teammate Daniel Ricciardo, as the two will be paired together at McLaren for the 2021 Formula 1 season.
Ricciardo, who will be leaving Renault to fill the seat left behind by Carlos Sainz who is on his way to Scuderia Ferrari, was teammates with Verstappen for two and a half years at Red Bull Racing before Ricciardo left to join Renault.
Norris was able to experience Ricciardo’s character during his rookie year, but admitted to Sky Sports on an Instagram live he doesn’t know much about how he operates behind the scenes.
“It’s hard to know what to expect until you are really there,” Norris said.
“Before 2018, no one really had the same perspective of Carlos until last year. He really shone a lot more and his personality came out a lot more.
“I want to say that was a bit down to me and how open I was as a teammate but there was never these memes about Carlos in 2018 or before that. In 2019 and 2020 everything exploded a lot more.
“So, from the outside you never really know what to expect, or know much about a driver until you work with them. That was the same for me with Carlos.
“It’s the same with Daniel. Obviously I know Daniel a little bit more than I did Carlos going into the season.
“But there’s still a lot of things I don’t know with how he works and how sneaky he is with things – more behind the scenes kind of stuff. I will find out next year.”
Norris also said that Verstappen gave him valuable advice with Carlos Sainz, who partnered the Dutchman in 2015 when they were both rookies at Scuderia Toro Rosso. Norris hopes Verstappen will be able to do the same for Ricciardo.
“Max gives me a lot of good tips, he knew a lot about Carlos,” he added. “He knows a lot about Daniel. That’s part of it, you’ve got to get to know your teammates.
“As much as you want to get along, and sometimes they don’t, you want to know what their weaknesses are and their strengths are and so on. If anyone can tell me them then that’s a benefit.
“You want to have fun in F1 and that’s what I want to do, but at the same time you need to work well with your teammate and as a team, but your biggest competitor is also your teammate.
“It’s going to be tough and there’s going to be a lot of things I need to learn from Daniel, but whoever has tips on what makes Daniel angry, I’m sure Max will be the guy to ask.”
