Belgian GP 2022: Lando Norris says he has 'no sympathy' for departing McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo
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Published 26/08/2022 at 10:42 GMT
Lando Norris said "people will probably hate me for saying it", but that he didn't have any sympathy for Daniel Ricciardo, who will leave McLaren at the end of 2022. With Ricciardo having been ahead in pre-season tests, Norris said he was "surprised" the Australian hadn't been able to drive to a similar level during the regular campaign. This weekend sees the F1 paddock in Spa for the Belgian GP.
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Lando Norris says that he has "no sympathy" for Daniel Ricciardo after the announcement that the Australian driver was to leave McLaren at the end of the season.
The pair - who only became teammates at the Woking-based outfit at the start of last year - have had very different campaigns so far, with Norris seventh in the drivers standings with 76 points while Ricciardo has only accumulated 19 points in the 13 races so far.
And on the eve of the Belgian GP in Spa, Norrie didn't hold back when asked about his opinion of his team's decision to part ways with Ricciardo, who has not ruled out a sabbatical from F1.
"I guess I'm surprised because when Daniel came into the team everyone expected more," Norrie said. "I'm sure himself even, he expected more from himself.
"When you look at it that way, yeah I'm surprised.
"It's not me having a dig or anything but when you look at the results - if you want two people to be at the same level then you're not surprised. It's hard to know when to call it, I guess, which is what they [McLaren] have done."
Asked if he had sympathy for his departing teammate, Norris was candid: "I hate to say it, but I would say no.
"People will probably hate me for saying it but it's difficult because I never know if I might encounter that in the future with this car or with a different team or whatever, so I never want to contradict myself going into the future, but I've just got to focus on my driving.
"It's not my job to focus on someone else, and I'm not a driver coach, I'm not here to help and do those kind of things. I'm here to perform at my absolute best and that's about it.
"It's also the case that if I don't perform well for a few years then it can also be the end of my career, the end of me driving in Formula 1, so I've got to focus on myself for the majority of it. Every driver has to adapt to the scenarios that they're in and that's what I feel like I've had to do.
"It's not a car that I've just been able to jump in and feel like I can just flow with and perform exactly like I want.
"At the beginning of the year Daniel was performing better than I was - in the pre-season tests and stuff - and it looked like he could just go out naturally and drive the car how he wanted to, and I had to start to learn a new way of driving compared to how I'd been used to driving the car for the last few years.
"So I feel like I've had to do a job of adapting and so has he, but I don't feel like for any driver you would have to have sympathy for them because they have not been able to do as good of a job."
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