Daniel Ricciardo has insisted that Oscar Piastri has hit the ground running, despite the Australian only scoring two top 10 finishes so far this season.
Piastri arrived at McLaren ahead of the current campaign, replacing Ricciardo, who had been dropped by the British team. There were high hopes that the 22-year-old would be able to compete with team-mate Lando Norris better than Ricciardo had.
But the duo have been dealt a bad hand when it comes to their car, with McLaren struggling for pace in the early part of the season. Norris has still claimed three top 10 finishes and sits two places ahead of Piastri in the world championship standings.
While he is currently behind Norris, Ricciardo is confident that Piastri can now kick on. The Red Bull reserve driver was full of praise for the man who replaced him and cautioned fans to not expect too much from his countryman.
“It’s always tough when looking at a team, who are not performing where they want to be. Lando is the reference, and it’s hard to know whether 12th place is good or not," Ricciardo told Total-Motorsport.com.
“Although Lando touched the wall in Saudi, Oscar got through and did a good qualifying, and Saudi is not an easy track. So I think that was a good sign for him. Since then, sure, Lando’s had a bit of an edge.
"But it’s still early in Oscars‘ career you can’t probably expect too much from him yet. So I think he’s hit the ground running. He had a good first lap in Miami. So I think he’s been carrying himself pretty well.”
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Piastri will hope to finish ahead of Norris in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix in the eighth race of the year. Norris could only managed a 15th place finish in last season's race in Montreal, potentially handing a chance to his team-mate.
Team boss Zak Brown maintains that he made the right decision to ditch Ricciardo in favour of Piastri. And he is confident the Australian can help McLaren to compete at the top of the standings.
“What we want to have… is two drivers that are pushing each other. And I think early indications are that Oscar will be on the same pace as Lando, and the two of them will push each other hard," Brown said in April.
"And that's what you want out of your two drivers, to know that it's kind of down to you, as a team, to provide them with a car to get to the front. When you look down the list of things you need to have a winning team, having two Grand Prix drivers is critically important.
I think we've got that. I think we're all big Daniel fans… he lights up a room when he walks in and smiles and I don't think he knows exactly why it didn't click. Sometimes drivers just need to recharge their batteries.
"Fernando did and Alain Prost did over the years, so hopefully Daniel will get an opportunity to go and try and win his ninth Grand Prix, and many more, because I think we'd all love to see him back on the grid on a regular basis.”
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