Norris: Sainz was brilliant and I lived in his shadow

Lando Norris admits that his former teammate Carlos Sainz was brilliant and that he lived in Sainz's shadow at one point.

Sainz has been a team-mate for the first two seasons of Norris' F1 career, and the friendly relationship between them eventually led mcLaren to third place in the 2020 constructors' standings.

Then, in the 2021 season, espanyol leaves Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo takes his place, considering his seven-time scoring stand title, it is thought that Norris will face an even tougher challenge.

Richardo turned his own race championship into eight at Monza, but for most of the season the Australian was second only to Norris, who scored four podiums in 22 grand prix and scored in 20 of them, ultimately scoring 45 more points than his teammates. Part of the reason behind this, of course, is that Ricciardo has struggled to adapt to the MCL35M, but Norris thinks it also says how good Sainz is at McLaren. Sainz surpassed Norris by 47 points in 2019 and 8 points in 2020.

He said: "I think Carlos is one of the best F1 drivers. Because he's a really good driver, which also makes me look less outstanding, I think I kind of live in his shadow because he's doing a great job. ”

Sainz went to Ferrari and, somewhat surprisingly, in his first year for Ferrari, he scored more points than his teammate Charles Leclerc, the 27-year-old driver helped a team finish third in the constructors' standings for the second year in a row.

Norris insisted that when Ricciardo joined as his new teammate, he didn't feel any sense of inferiority.

Norris said: "I wasn't nervous when he came to McLaren, a lot of people thought he was... Because he won a few races, however, everyone felt that he was capable because he was in a car that was enough to win races. ”