Piastri benefitting and ‘Learning a lot’ from having ‘Established’ Norris as Team-mate

Oscar Piastri says he has already learned a lot from McLaren F1 Team team-mate Lando Norris in the opening three races of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career in 2023.

The Australian joined McLaren in place of countryman Daniel Ricciardo ahead of the 2023 campaign and has been responsible for the teams’ only top ten start of the season so far after making it into Q3 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Both drivers scored their first points of the season last time out in Australia, Norris in sixth and Piastri in eighth, and the young Australian says being team-mates to the British has benefited him as he adapts to life as a Formula 1 driver.

“I’ve definitely been learning a lot from Lando,” Piastri is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Not just how to drive this car specifically, but also just the way we do debriefs and attention to detail and stuff like that.

“I think there’s always areas to try and improve. So it’s been good to have him as a benchmark, definitely.  I think Lando is very much established himself in his career so far as a high quality driver, so even just working alongside him definitely I can see that.”

Norris has already said that Piastri has been keeping him on his toes since his arrival, and the Australian has also agreed that he and the British racer have very similar requests from their car and have been giving the McLaren engineers the same kind of feedback about the MCL60.

“I feel like similar to what Lando said, we’re working in a very similar way in terms of what we want from the car,” Piastri said.  “I think we’re working in a very similar way, which is good for the team.

“For the engineering side of things that gives them a very clear direction.”