Lando Norris to start taking lessons from Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren filming day

McLaren MCL35M Launch — Photo: © LAT Images

McLaren launch

Norris to start taking lessons from Ricciardo at McLaren filming day

Norris keen to learn from race winner Ricciardo

Sam Hall

Monday 15 February 2021 21:30

McLaren driver Lando Norris will begin to size himself up against new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo at a shakedown of the MCL35M on Tuesday [February 16].

After racing alongside Carlos Sainz in the first two years of his Formula 1 career, Norris now finds himself in direct competition with a seven-time race winner.

With McLaren launching its new car, asked what he expects from Ricciardo this year, Norris said: “It’s difficult for me to know just yet. I need to wait until we’re on track and we do our first shakedown which is this week.

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"I will already be able to take things away from just doing a few laps, learning from him, learning from his feedback and things on the simulator already I’ve been able to pick up on."

McLaren will complete one of its filming days at Silverstone on Tuesday, with both Norris and Ricciardo scheduled to take to the track.

While the limited running will allow Norris to begin his evaluation of his new team-mate, the Briton conceded no true conclusions can be drawn until either pre-season testing on March 12-14 or the first race of the year in Bahrain at the end of that month.

“In terms of how and where he’s going to push me more than ever then it’s difficult to know until we get into the proper pre-season test and we get into the first race," added Norris.

"That’s when everything comes alive a little bit more and people show their true colours.

“So, I don’t have an exact answer for that yet but I’m sure it’s going to be basically every area he’s pushing me and hopefully I will be pushing him, too, so that is the aim."

Norris, meanwhile, has confirmed he is now fully recovered from Covid-19 after contracting the virus at the start of the year and being forced to self-isolate for two weeks.

“I’ve been really good," added Norris. "Luckily for me, Covid wasn’t too bad.

"It was a few days of initially having no taste, no smell, the normal really, and just feeling very drained and tired for a couple of weeks. But since then I have fully recovered and everything is back to normal.

“I wouldn’t say that it really affected me too much. A bit of the training – I wasn’t allowed outside at all.

"I didn’t have a window or anything so I had to just do some basic workouts in my room and no cardio or runs or cycles, just do what I could in my room. That was all.

“Since then, it’s been a bit more back to normal at my house here back in the UK, on my bike, on my treadmill doing the normal stuff – neck training and just getting back in the swing of things.”