Formula 1 star Lando Norris issued a savage response regarding the situation with Daniel Ricciardo who will no longer be his teammate come next season. Alpine had announced earlier this month that Oscar Piastri would replace Fernando Alonso next season, with the Spaniard set to join Aston Martin.
However, the 21-year-old announced soon after he would not be joining Alpine and was instead keen on a move to McLaren with Ricciardo on the move. As he is the team’s reserve driver, Alpine have said Piastri is contractually obligated to drive for them on the F1 grid next year, something Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer says the youngster signed up for since last year.
Ricciardo, 33, has been caught in the middle of an unfortunate situation, but he has been under scrutiny given a subpar season by his standards. When asked if he has any sympathy for his teammate’s plight, Norris was very blunt with his response. “I hate to say it, but I would say no,” he said. “People will probably hate me for saying it.
“And it's difficult because I never know if I might encounter that in the future with this car or a different team, or whatever, so I never want to contradict myself going into the future. I've just got to focus on my driving and my job. It's not my job to focus on someone else and I'm not a driver coach. I'm not here to help and do those kinds of things.”
Ricciardo will no longer be part of McLaren’s set-up next year after agreeing to leave the team this week. He is open to a return to Alpine, a team he spent two seasons with. "Yes,” Ricciardo told Sky when asked if he was interested in rejoining the team. “I don't know how else to say that. I'd say, if it's right."
McLaren boss Zak Brown, who spoke about Ricciardo's position earlier in the season, claimed his biggest regret about signing the Aussie was not making his contract watertight, so the team wouldn't have to write him such a big cheque if it didn't work out. The eight-time race winner will reportedly receive a payout from McLaren worth around $24million (£14.15m).
“I think my one learning there would just be contractual, I don't think there's anything we could have done differently for him as a driver,” Brown said.
“I'm sitting here right now thinking I don't think we could have done something differently to make him more competitive. We tried all that. We've had to end the relationship early. We've had to write a big cheque, which is fine because that's the deal that we cut.
“I think what I'll do next time is maybe have some more performance protections for us and not just assume that a great driver's going to always be great. I think that's the one learning as more a contractual one, but it's a big one."
