McLaren’s relationship with Daniel Ricciardo was extremely positive, with both sides exhausting every option in an attempt to make their time together as successful as possible.
Unfortunately, the Australian was unable to find his true form with the team and was comprehensively beating in the championship by McLaren’s young star Lando Norris.
The team were left with no option but to part ways with Ricciardo and opted to appoint his younger countryman Oscar Piastri, who was signed with Alpine as a young driver.
A hearing with the Contract Recognition Board resulted in the 21-year-old being allowed to reject Alpine’s offer of a race seat and join McLaren, much to the outrage to the French team.
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Now, Lando Norris has taken to the track with his new teammate for the first time, with many fans wondering how the 23-year-old will adapt to being the senior driver in the team for the first time.
McLaren posted a video to their YouTube channel which involved Norris taking part in a karting race with McLaren’s Lead Performance Engineer Jose Manuel Lopez, Director of Strategy Randy Singh and Senior Specialist Race Strategies Chris Lark.
The four McLaren employees are obviously being outperformed and overtaken by Norris and then in steps Oscar Piastri, who is dramatically revealed gearing up to join the race.
The Australian joins the racetrack and quickly dispatches of the other driver until he catches up with Norris, with whom he shares an entertaining on track battle before the karting race ends.
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This is the first time that the two drivers have been on the track together at the same time, with Piastri only ever having driven some older McLaren machinery in a private test last year.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has eased the pressure on Piastri ahead of the 2023 season, claiming that he does not expect the rookie to be able to challenge Norris straight away.
He does however anticipate the Australian quickly adapting and being able to compete with his teammate in the future, but will give Piastri time before judging him against the performances on his superstar teammate.