Lando Norris claims teammate Oscar Piastri had ‘one of the best baselines for a rookie’ in F1

Norris admits to playing a vital role in assisting Piastri.

Lando Norris claims teammate Oscar Piastri had ‘one of the best baselines for a rookie’ in F1

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris (image via IMAGO)

Oscar Piastri made his highly anticipated F1 debut in 2023 with McLaren. The Australian driver decided to make a shock move to the Woking-based team after refusing to drive for Alpine. The 22-year-old has since delivered some solid results this season. Now, Lando Norris has praised his teammate’s preparation for his rookie season.

Norris also admits to playing a pivotal role in assisting Piastri. The British driver has helped the rookie through the first half of the 2023 season. However, Lando Norris believed that the Australian driver was perhaps one of the most prepared drivers to race at the pinnacle of motorsport. He did guide him but the rookie was prepared for it. As Oscar Piastri managed to get up to speed right from the start of the season.

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Lando Norris told Crash.net, “I obviously played a huge role, no, he’s developed a decent amount but he started off on probably one of the best baselines a rookie’s ever started off on coming into F1.” Piastri has managed to showcase his talent this season and came close to achieving a podium on two occasions. However, the McLaren driver was down on luck in both instances and failed to make it into the Top 3.

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Lando Norris assisting Oscar Piastri at McLaren

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. (image via GPFans)

The British driver managed to annihilate multiple race winner Daniel Ricciardo during their time as teammates at Woking. So much so, that Ricciardo was paid to end his contract early with McLaren and sit on the sidelines. As such, many believed that Oscar Piastri would have a hard time against the British driver. However, Norris has mentioned that he is trying to help out the rookie driver.

The Briton shed light on the sharing of data between the two sides of the McLaren garage. Oscar Piastri is able to see Norris’ on-track data and understand the way his teammate is driving the MCL60. This allows the Australian driver to learn from his teammate and improve his own on-track performance. Norris said, “I believe it played a part of course, because he looks at my data every weekend and he sees everything that I do, the ways that I work on and off the track.”

Thus, Lando Norris has made it clear that Oscar Piastri had one of the strongest baselines for a rookie in F1. The Briton believes that the 22-year-old was well prepared for his debut season at the pinnacle of motorsport. As such, Piastri has managed to live up to the high expectations laid on him before the start of the 2023 season.

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