Lando Norris pinpoints one area where Oscar Piastri was better than him in their respective rookie seasons

Lando Norris believes his teammate Oscar Piastri had an impressive rookie season in Formula 1. In an interview on the McLaren team website, the Brit reflected on his teammate's season and compared it to his own rookie year.

In his debut year, Lando Norris had scored 49 points and was 11th in the championship with his teammate Carlos Sainz finishing sixth with a total of 96 points. Piastri had a better rookie season than the British driver at the Woking squad, scoring a total of 97 points and finishing ninth in the championship and was closer in terms of lap time. The Aussie rookie won a sprint race and secured two podiums in his debut year.

Praising his teammate’s rookie year, Lando Norris said:

“Oscar had an incredible season. Keeping calm and being yourself, it’s good to be reminded of that. I think he’s been very, very good at dealing with pressure, better than I feel like I remember I was when I started, but I think that’s because everyone’s very different with all of this – dealing with pressure and remaining calm and chilled.

"I think that is something that I’ve gotten a lot better with over the years – I know how to deal with all of these things much better myself now. I have a lot of respect for Oscar in how he was able to stay so calm in a new environment, in Formula 1, on the big stage.”

Piastri’s rookie year has been hailed as one of the most promising ones when compared to many of his counterparts or other drivers on the grid. However, his temperament and yearning to develop has been praised by both his teammate and the team.

Lando Norris said the 22-year-old was extremely good at coping with the pressure of the rookie season, given the scrutiny involved around analyzing his performance on the world stage. He felt it took him a longer time to handle the pressures of the sport mentally, whereas the Australian is quite calm in that respect.

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Lando Norris feels McLaren are going in the right direction for the 2024 season

Speaking in an interview on the McLaren team website, Lando Norris was excited for the season ahead. The Brit said that after their performance turnaround in 2023, they are headed in the right direction for 2024. He felt that they were able to understand their package better.

With a difficult start to the 2023 season, McLaren went from being backmarkers to clinching podiums by the end of the season. The 24-year-old is positive and looking forward to a better start to the 2024 season. Rob Marshall from Ferrari and David Sanchez from Red Bull have joined the technical leadership team of McLaren, which is already seeing a positive impact.

Talking about their team progress and the season ahead, Lando Norris said:

“We’re on the right track. We’ve learned so [much] really over the last four, five, six months. So the progress we’ve made, we’ve learned a lot. We have some new hirings coming in, and although not everything that they can bring to us will be on the car straight away, there are some things that we already know now.

"I’m excited because we’re finally on the right track, and we know in which direction to push, and I just want to start the season off well. If we can start well in Bahrain, I’ll be much more excited.”

After sorting out most of their performance woes, McLaren were a team that made maximum progress last season. Starting the season at the bottom half of the grid, they were able to surge to fourth place by the end of the year.

According to most of their rivals such as Red Bull and Ferrari, McLaren are going to be the team to watch in terms of car development. Red Bull are expecting the Woking-based team to be extremely competitive in 2024. Most of the Papaya Orange squad’s rivals expect them to be in the mix at the front.