Daniel Ricciardo denies any hostility towards teammate, Lando Norris, Contrary to What DTS Showed

Daniel Ricciardo denies any hostility towards teammate, Lando Norris, Contrary to What DTS Showed

Daniel Ricciardo

In a recent interview with Daniel Ricciardo, who is currently in his second Formula 1 season as an F1 driver, a question about the portrayal of a cold relationship between Ricciardo and his teammate, Lando Norris, in the latest season of the popular Netflix series Drive to Survive, popped up.

The series, this time, focused mainly on the rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for the 2021 F1 World Championship. Of course, to put in an element of dramatics, the creators had to ooze out some angle of enmity between some of the drivers such as the McLaren pair.

Daniel Ricciardo started with McLaren in his first campaign with the Woking-based team in 2021. As a debutant, he struggled while he was getting accustomed to the new car and the Drive to Survive episodes which focused on this showed as if Lando Norris had little sympathy for Ricciardo’s struggles. It also showed how Daniel Ricciardo was taking the place of Carlos Sainz, thus splitting the friendship between Norris and the former McLaren driver.

“I think we have a very good relationship” : Daniel Ricciardo is all smiles as he talks about his rapport with teammate Lando Norris

McLaren duo Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris
McLaren duo Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris

The latest installment in the Netflix series showed how the atmosphere was in the paddocks during the 2021 Championship season. The episodes which focused on McLaren, showed the team’s struggle against Ferrari to win the third spot in the Constructors’ Championship table. But some of the focus also went to the dynamics between teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, and it was shown to be a cold relationship between the two.

On being asked about the teammates’ relationship, the Australian driver said, “I felt like a lot of people probably wanted us to be best friends from day one. And it was something that we couldn’t really force and it did take a bit of time to really create a good relationship.

“But in saying that, there wasn’t tension or anything, it was just that we were trying to figure each other out.

“Currently where I sit today, I think we have a very good relationship.”

Truth be told, F1 drivers have alleged that Drive to Survive overdoes many things in the show just for the sake of dramatics. They had portrayed teammates Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in such a way that Sainz said they had gone “too far” with their portrayal. 2021 World Champion Max Verstappen refused to give an interview for the show because he did not want to support the “fake rivalries” the show created out of nothing.

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