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Lando Norris has claimed that he does not feel any sympathy for Daniel Ricciardo's struggles at McLaren.
Ricciardo's departure was made official by the team on Wednesday and it capped off a rather tough association between the team and the driver. When questioned by the media if he felt any sympathy for his teammate, Norris was quite straightforward as he said:
“I would hate to say it, but I would say no. People would probably hate me for saying it. 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. I’ve just got to focus on my driving, and my job. It’s not my job to focus on someone else.”
Lando Norris also revealed that his job was not to help Daniel Ricciardo but to perform at his absolute best with the team. He said:
“I’m not a driver coach, I’m not here to help and do those kinds of things. I’m here to perform at my absolute best, and that’s about it. So it’s difficult, when people start to have an expectation that it’s my job to also start doing these other things and helping and describing this and doing that, when that’s not really the case.”
There was also a certain level of pragmatism on display as Norris admitted that if he did not perform well, he would be out of the sport as well. He said:
“And it’s also the case that if I don’t perform well for a few years that it can also be the end of my career, and the end of me driving and F1. So I’ve got to focus on myself for the majority of it. And every driver has to adapt to the scenarios they are in, and I feel like I’ve had to do that.”
Daniel Ricciardo was performing better than Lando Norris during pre-season tests
Lando Norris also revealed that even he wasn't entirely comfortable with McLaren's 2022 challenger when he jumped into the car. The Briton claimed that it was Daniel Ricciardo who held the edge over him in pre-season tests.
Norris said:
“It’s not a car that I’ve just been able to jump in and feel like I just flow with and can perform exactly how I want. In 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.”
Daniel Ricciardo had another disappointing outing in Saturday's qualifying for the 2022 F1 Belgian GP as he found himself getting eliminated in Q2 despite a tow from his teammate.
