Norris: Perception of Ricciardo relationship "completely incorrect"

Norris and Ricciardo spent two seasons together as teammates at McLaren before Ricciardo and the British squad agreed a mutual early termination of the Australian’s contract at the end of 2022. 

Having enjoyed a strong friendship with previous McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz, there was a suggestion from some quarters that Norris and Ricciardo did not always get on behind the scenes. 

But the 23-year-old Briton has moved to quash such suggestions, insisting it is nothing more than a big misconception. 

“Me and Carlos still get along very well,” Norris said at the launch of McLaren’s MCL60 F1 car. 

"I think everyone had a perception me and Daniel didn’t, although that was completely incorrect.

“We were very competitive and wanted to beat each other so maybe that was the vibe that was given off. 

“We were guys that were always happy to help each other, always wanted to beat each other. That’s just the way it is between drivers. 

“But we were good friends and had a lot of good laughs and so on. I think, what me and Carlos had or just the level of respect we had for each other, was just higher than what most people see between drivers in F1.”

Norris says he has no doubts that he and new teammate Oscar Piastri can work together to achieve McLaren’s ambitions. 

“With Oscar, it’s still very early days,” he said. 

"We've only actually worked together and been working on the same day probably a handful of times so far, either here at MTC [McLaren Technology Centre] or if I've done tests last season and so on. But so far, so good. 

"It is still a very different environment, working here and working at a test compared to when you're actually at a race weekend and you're competing for the first time. 

"But he's a lovely guy, very hard worker, and I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to continue McLaren's reputation over the last few years of being a very good team.

"[We can] help each other when we need to help each other, because we still have the same goal. We both want to win races, we both want to be champions, and we understand that we can't do that [at] this current time.

"We don't have what we need, we don't have the machinery to do so. So, until then, we'll work well together and push ourselves and each other to get closer to the target."