Norris not going to be the 'apprentice': 'Ricciardo not much faster than Sainz'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lando Norris has held his own against a competitive teammate in his first two years in Formula 1. Norris was often even faster than Carlos Sainz in qualifying. And while Sainz was deemed good enough by Ferrari to replace Sebastian Vettel, Norris may face an even greater challenge this season.
His new teammate Daniel Ricciardo is also known to be very fast in qualifying. Though Norris is hesitant to say in what respect he thinks the Australian is better. "It’s a little bit into the unknown because I’ve only had one team-mate in Formula 1, so it’s hard to know what to expect from somebody different," Norris told the-race.com.
Norris wants to lead
“I’ve seen Carlos do many things better than Daniel, but there’s also a lot of things that Daniel probably does better than Carlos. He’s a different driver, but he’s not going to be tenths faster than Carlos. A lot of it is just going to be from his [Ricciardo] experience of being with a lot of different teams in Formula 1 and at a Red Bull team which has won races lately."
With Ricciardo now among the veterans of Formula One, it is tempting for Norris to slip into the position of 'apprentice', but he has no intention of doing so. It's time to make his own mark. "I’ve been able to lead my own conversations a lot more, lead in decisions and future projects," he says.