Lando Norris says he understands why struggling McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo has found it so difficult to get to grips with his car this season.
The Australian had a mixed first year with the team in 2021. The high, of course, was his sensational win at Monza, as Norris finished behind him to record the only one-two finish of the season. But there were plenty of other races during which he struggled to make an impact.
And it has been more of the same so far during this campaign. With the exception of his sixth-placed finish in Australia and eighth at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he has spent his time outside the points-scoring positions.
Norris has a lot of sympathy for his team-mate, and explained that the McLaren cars are different to others in the sense that they have certain quirks which make them very tricky to handle on-track. When asked if he knew why Ricciardo has struggled so much, the Brit replied: "I can understand on some points, because I do feel like it's a difficult car to drive, our car.
"I think like our characteristics we've also had over the past few years, and even Carlos [Sainz] said it, they're quite specific and unique. So some of the driving styles you need are not ones you kind of grow up learning, and therefore you have to adapt quite a bit.
"Last year, I would say that we had more of that, and then it's not an easy thing to adapt to that, like holding the brake in some sorts of corners that you don't feel like you want to hold the brake in, and then doing the opposite in other corners. It's not like an obvious thing on how to drive the car in every corner."
While no doubt helped by the fact he has been racing with McLaren for several seasons now, Norris went on to say that he too has struggled to adapt to this new car created to comply with the much-changed technical regulations for the 2022 season. "It's the same for me," he added.
"Especially with this year, the car is very different. And some of the characteristics we had last year are gone, and we've introduced some other characteristics. And I've had to change my driving style. So at the same time I've also had to adapt to it.
"It's not just because I've been with McLaren for four years that I know this car inside out, I struggled at the beginning of the season probably with my driving style a little bit more than what Daniel struggled with initially, in the first few tests, and I feel like I had to adapt quite a bit. So I understand certain parts of it."
