Lando Norris stated he had no sympathy for his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo in response to the announcement of his departure from the British outfit which was disclosed on Friday.
Ricciardo will quit the British team at the end of the current campaign, having been paid off a year before his contract was set to expire. The contract termination comes as a result of his poor performance, which has been wholly unacceptably poor for a seasoned driver of such repute and pay.
“I hate to say it, but I would say no,” Norris responded when reporters enquired about his feelings toward Ricciardo’s situation prior to the Belgian Grand Prix. “I feel like I’ve had to do a job of adapting and so has he, but I don’t feel like for any driver you would have to have sympathy for them because they have not been able to do as good of a job.”
In comparison to Norris, who has 76 points from 13 races and a third-place finish at Imola, Ricciardo has only scored 19 points with a best finish of sixth this season.
Norris claimed that he was just concerned about his own performance and not that of his teammate.
“It’s difficult because I never know if I might encounter that in the future with this car or with a different team or whatever,” the 22-year old said. “I never want to contradict myself going into the future, but I’ve just got to focus on my driving.”
“It’s also the case that if I don’t perform well for a few years then it can also be the end of my career, the end of me driving in Formula One, so I’ve got to focus on myself for the majority of it.”
“Every driver has to adapt to the scenarios that they’re in and that’s what I feel like I’ve had to do.”
“It’s not a car that I’ve just been able to jump in and feel like I can just flow with and perform exactly like I want.”
“At the beginning of the year Daniel was performing better than I was – in the preseason tests and stuff – and it looked like he could just go out naturally and drive the car how he wanted to, and I had to start to learn a new way of driving compared to how I’d been used to driving the car for the last few years.”
“I guess I’m surprised because when Daniel came into the team everyone expected more,” Norris added. “I’m sure he even, he expected more from himself… When you look at it that way, yeah I’m surprised.”
“It’s not me having a dig or anything but when you look at the results… if you want two people to be at the same level then you’re not surprised. It’s hard to know when to call it, I guess, which is what they’ve done.”
