Lando Norris says Daniel Ricciardo’s struggles at McLaren helped him “learn a lot”

Lando Norris says team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s initial struggles to get up to speed with the McLaren MCL35M helped him develop as a team leader. Norris said that the sudden need to step up and shoulder McLaren’s responsibility while his more experienced team-mate was still figuring the ropes helped his progress “massively” this season.

In a post-season interview with RN365, the young British driver spoke of his impressive performances during the first half of the 2021 season. Norris said:

“I think, especially the first half of the season, when Daniel (Ricciardo) was kind of getting up to speed a lot more, (it) was more (about) how I can lead the team, myself. Just because Daniel was getting up to speed. Now it’s like more equal, it’s just a different situation.”

“So, I think that one thing was very good for me, and I’ve learned — if I can’t use the data from the other car — how I need to approach the weekends, how I need to drive. And those things, (you) have to try as much as you can yourself. So, leading the team and being alone a little bit more [was] definitely one of the biggest things (that I gained).”

Norris said the need to step up forced him to try new things and drive differently. As the season went on, the confidence he had built helped him push himself even more and try to get better.

Lando Norris was one of the standout performers during the first half of the 2021 season. He put in consistent performances that were on par with the two title protagonists Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

For the longest time, Norris held P3 in the drivers' championship ahead of the second Red Bull and Mercedes of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas respectively. The young Brit also single-handedly led McLaren’s defense of P3 in the constructors' championship while his more experienced team-mate struggled to extract the best of the tricky McLaren.

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Lando Norris provides insights into his influence over McLaren’s development

Apart from leading the Woking-based team’s defense against Ferrari, Lando Norris feels that one of the key impacts he had last season on the team was on the car’s development. Norris made his racing debut in 2019 and feels until this season, he had very little influence on the car’s development.

Speaking to RN365, Norris spoke of his involvement in McLaren's development:

“Being a bit more forward with the development of the car and stuff like that (was an area of improvement). It’s a bit difficult because next year it doesn’t matter as much, but maybe over the season there was a bigger effect from that with the development of some of the upgrades we had.”

Furthermore, Norris has revealed that he often helped his team have clean weekends by finding solutions, while also trying to minimize smaller mistakes from his side that add up. He said that the season was just “putting it all together” in terms of learning and that he feels much more confident heading into 2022.