Lando Norris says he is "excited" by the arrival of Oscar Piastri to the McLaren Formula 1 team for the 2023 season. McLaren signed Piastri for next season having lost faith in Daniel Ricciardo's ability to rediscover his form after underwhelming since his switch from Renault in 2021. Ricciardo did have a contract option for 2023, but the team will pay it up, freeing up a space for Piastri - who signed a deal the day after the British Grand Prix in July. Although this was not explicitly for a race seat and was just to sign for McLaren with Piastri aware he could have been on the sidelines until 2024 if Ricciardo did not leave. There was doubt about where Piastri would race as his current team Alpine believed they had a contract for the 2021 Formula 2 champion's services, but the FIA's Contract Recognition Board ruled in favour of McLaren. With Piastri set to join, Norris is looking forward to the arrival of the Australian and how they work together.
Norris excited by Piastri arrival
"I'm excited to work with someone different," Norris exclusively told RacingNews365.com. "I've had two very different, extremely good drivers [Carlos Sainz Jr and Ricciardo as teammates] in my first few years in Formula 1, so I always look forward to working with someone new. "I just hope that they're someone you can get along with and have some fun with [but] I [also] don't mind if they hate me, and they never want to talk to me.
Judging the line with Sainz and Ricciardo
Having raced with both Carlos Sainz and Ricciardo at McLaren, Norris found ways to judge the line between being friends but retaining the ruthless competitiveness. "You have to get people who are more ruthless, and at the same time don't want to be as friendly," said Norris. "I guess there'd be differences between Carlos and Daniel. "Daniel is just a guy you can have a lot of laughs with and you want to make each other laugh and enjoy [things]. As soon as you get out the car it's serious. But when you don't have to be as serious, you enjoy it. And you have fun. "With Carlos, a lot of it was going out to play golf and going out sometimes and things like that. We have a lot of respect for one another. But we're also just good friends away from the circuit. "But everyone knows when we're on the track, there's nothing more that we want to do than beat each other."
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