Formula One is a tough world and baby face Lando Norris is not quite the pushover his boyish image portrays. Having been beaten by team mate Carlos Sainz during the 2019 and 2020 season when they raced together for McLaren, Norris has stepped up to the plate. He finished P6 ahead of LeClerc in a Ferrari last season and has possibly finished Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career having scored so far this year 79 points to Aussie team mates 19.

Sainz quipped following his call up to Ferrari that the McLaren car was a ‘tricky car’ to drive during his time with the team, to which Ricciardo replied after signing for the team, “Thanks for telling me mate.”

The news broke during the pre-Belgium GP preparations that Daniel Ricciardo would be leaving the McLaren team at the end of this year and one season before his contract expired.

The Aussie has struggled to get on top of the tricky McLaren car’s characteristics, while Norris has now mastered it as well as he could have hoped.

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When asked about the news Ricciardo was leaving the team during interviews following the Belgium GP, Norris replied, “I’ve no sympathy for him” and laughed.

Lando Norris enjoyed a much media hyped ‘bromance with Sainz as his team mate but his relationship with the jovial Daniel Riccardo has never hit such heights.

When asked today about the Spa comment, Norris replied, “I want to be friends with as many people as possible and it’s similar to how I am now with Daniel.”

“We get on really well. For some reason people think otherwise, but it’s completely untrue.”

The Netflix series ‘Drive to survive’ following the 2021 season did portray at times the relationship between Norris and Ricciardo to be strained at times.

On his relationship with Ricciardo Norris added, “We have a lot of fun together, we spend a lot of time together, but it’s just things are a bit different [than with Carlos] because he’s a bit older and into different things.”

He’s [Daniel] not into playing golf and so on, so you don’t see it [our time together] on social media or whatever.”

“Our friendship and respect for each other are good and I’m pretty sure that will continue into the future.”

Notably, land Norris didn’t apologise for his flippant comment to SkySports last weekend. Maybe the bright eyed Belgo-Brit is tougher than we realise.

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