Lando Norris hates to say it, but the McLaren driver admits he has no sympathy for outgoing teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren and Ricciardo announced earlier this week that they would part ways at the end of the 2022 F1 season, or a year before the expiration of the Aussie's contract with the Woking-based outfit.
"People will probably hate me for saying it," Norris admitted at Spa on Thursday. "I don't feel like you have to have sympathy for any driver because they've not been able to do as good a job."
The 22-year-old, who has comprehensively outperformed Ricciardo since the latter joined McLaren at the start of 2021, feels he must first and foremost focus on himself rather than help his teammate alleviate his troubles.
©McLaren
"I've just got to focus on my driving and my job," added Norris. "It's not my job to focus on someone else. I'm not a driver coach.
"I'm not here to help and do those kind of things. I'm here to perform at my absolute best. And that's about it.
"So it's difficult when people start to have an expectation that it's my job to also start doing these other things and helping and describing this and doing that. When that's not really the case.
"And it's also the case that if I don't perform well for a few years that it can also be the end of my career and the end of me driving in Formula 1."
Ricciardo's struggles since joining McLaren have been rooted in his difficulty in adapting to the papaya squad's car. But Norris says he suffered from complications of his own regarding his team's 2022 machine.
"Every driver has to adapt to scenarios they are in and I feel like I've had to," he said.
"It's not a car that I've just been able to jump in and feel like I just flow with and can perform exactly how I want.
"In the beginning of the year, Daniel was performing better than I was in the pre-season and tests and stuff, and it looked like he could go out naturally and drive the car the way he wanted t.
"And I had to start to learn a new way of driving compared to how I've been used to driving the car for the last few years."
Norris therefore pushed back on the notion that McLaren's new-generation MCL36 has been better suited to his driving style.
"The only thing that people get extremely wrong is, any opinion, thinking the car's designed around me or suiting me more than it is him.
"If I could choose an exact driving style for me to have and for a car to suit, this car doesn't give me anything of what I want to do.
"And therefore the job as a driver is to adapt to that and just do the best you can with the car, which is what I'm doing and maybe easier for me to do than it is for Daniel."
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