Norris: Piastri challenge already surpassing Ricciardo's

Lando Norris says Oscar Piastri is already giving him a bigger Formula 1 challenge at McLaren than Daniel Ricciardo was able to.

Ricciardo joined McLaren to partner Norris in 2021, but the Australian failed to live up to expectations and lost his race seat at the end of '22 - to be replaced by countryman Oscar Piastri after he was snared from Alpine.

Piastri has fared well alongside the highly-rated Norris, despite trailing 4-0 in races after finishing 11th in Azerbaijan to the Briton's ninth.

However, Norris feels that Piastri is delivering him a good challenge as he steps into the new role of team leader in 2023.

Piastri better than Ricciardo

"We both give a sense of the feelings and the story of what's going on with the car and what you want from the car," Norris explained to media, including RacingNews365.com.

"It aligns very well, but I wouldn't say we have the same driving style, but our comments and complaints are generally always the same - so that is a good thing.

"They maybe lean on me a little bit more for the knowledge of how we were in previous years to look at the development from last year to this year and things like that.

"He's a lovely guy, down to earth, normal and a hard worker - so yeah it is good fun.

"[He's] different to Daniel, I feel like a bit of contrast of Australia, but good fun - he's very fast at the same time, so probably been pushing me a little bit more than in the past couple of years."