Daniel Ricciardo 'is like a teddy bear', says Lando Norris as the McLaren driver answers fans questions on Reddit AMA

In a recent Quadrant YouTube video, Lando Norris answered some interesting questions asked by fans on their official F1 Reddit page. The Briton spoke about his relationship with McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and went on to compare him to a "cute little teddy bear".

When asked whether he would rather fight a hundred duck-sized Daniel Ricciardos or one Daniel Ricciardo-sized duck, he answered, saying:

“See, I think Daniel [Ricciardo] is quite harmless. He just has some tattoos to make him look more aggressive than he is. But he’s actually like a little teddy bear. Not that I’ve ever hugged him, but he is a cute little teddy bear, you know. So I would say a 100 duck-sized Danny Rics because that would be easy.”

While Lando Norris claims he has never hugged the Aussie, fans may remember the historic moment from the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, where McLaren secured a glorious 1-2 finish. The two drivers were seen hugging each other at the end of the drive.

Lando Norris generally shares a good relationship with Daniel Ricciardo. While it may not be the same kind of friendship he shared with his former team-mate Carlos Sainz, it was certainly made out to be a lot more hostile with the way it was portrayed in the latest season of the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive.

Answering another interesting question, the Briton spoke about the five combined drivers who would make up the ultimate F1 driver. He said:

“If I take myself out of it, you’d have Lewis [Hamilton] in there, you’d have Max [Verstappen], I’d have Fernando [Alonso], a bit of Carlos [Sainz], and a bit of Yuki [Tsunoda].”

He mentioned that he would have Yuki Tsunoda "just for pure entertainment" while also acknowledging missing out on current championship leader Charles Leclerc.

The final question that Lando Norris answered in his video was whether he misses recently retired former F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, to which he responded:

“I never spoke to Kimi. In three years of racing in Formula 1, I don’t think I ever said a word to him... So I miss watching Kimi, I miss his interviews and that side, but apart from that, no. There’s plenty other cool people in the world and we have an exciting grid. In half a way, yes, in half a way, no.”

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Lando Norris does not expect a good team result in the next few races for McLaren

McLaren achieved their best result of the season so far in the 2022 Australian Grand Prix last week with their first double-points finish of the year. Lando Norris, however, has warned fans that he does not expect such improved results any time soon in the upcoming races.

The Briton said:

“We just need to keep working on the weaknesses, to be honest, if we want to be here more often because not all tracks are as smooth and as quick as this. So, I think this might be as good as it gets for a while and we’re going to a couple of tracks which might be a bit tougher for us. But the team is motivated. I guess a day like today really helps them out and keeps them happy, so a good result for the team.”

Lando Norris insists that the Albert Park circuit significantly suited their car. Claiming that they did have the potential to fight Mercedes last weekend, he said:

“I guess we wanted to fight the Mercedes a little bit more than we did. If I was ahead after turn one without a bad start, they would have passed us at some point in the race anyway, so I don’t think we can be too unhappy. I think we have to be happy with the job we did, they just have a much better car.”

McLaren currently stand fourth in the constructors' standings with a total of 24 points.