Daniel Ricciardo believes that Lando Norris' relative lack of experience in Formula 1 has actually given him a crucial edge at McLaren over their two seasons together as team mates.
While Norris is far from being a rookie with 78 Grand Prix starts under his belt since his maiden race in Australia in 2019, he's still got a long way to go before he can match Ricciardo's level of experience.
The 33-year-old Aussie made his first appearance in the British Grand Prix in 2011 for HRT and went on to race for Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault and now McLaren over 228 race starts to date.
However Ricciardo is to leave McLaren at the end of the year after a disappointing stint at McLaren. This season he's claimed only 29 points compared to 101 for his youthful team mate in the same car.
Asked what the difference was between them, Ricciardo suggested that having more experience in F1 might actually prove to have been a disadvantage.
“If I’m going to give you a short answer, I’ll put it down to two things,” he told The Race in an interview this week.
“One, I’ll never take credit away from him: the kid’s good," he stated. "There’s no denying that. And if I say he’s not then I’m just being a bitter, sore loser," adding: “The kid’s good, that’s obviously one element. He can steer.
“The second is, ignorance is bliss. And I’m not saying he’s got no knowledge of race cars. Not at all. I think he’s quite actually in tune with what he does, from a technical point of view.
“But it’s the only F1 car he’s driven," he explained. "Obviously, there have been variations of the McLaren, but he hasn’t driven for another team so in a way he's got, I’m sure, used to some of the elements of this car.
"I’ve obviously got some – I hate this word, but I’ve just got to use it for a lack of better words right now – expectation of maybe what a Formula 1 car can do or should do, or where some potential lies.
Ricciardo added that even without driving for a different team, Norris was also getting that wider level of exposure.
“He does now because he watches on-boards, and he sees what other drivers can do: 'Yeah I wish we could do that, the rear doesn’t do what I want’", he explained. “But ultimately, he hasn’t been behind the wheel of another car.
"So obviously he’s good, [but] there’s an element of ‘ignorance is bliss’”.
Ricciardo admitted that he's studied telemetry and onboard footage from Norris' car, but simply hadn't been able to match the performance.
“Obviously we have so much data and I’ll watch Lando’s on-boards as well. And I’ll see sometimes what he’s able to do and I’m just like, ‘OK, I can see it, but I can’t do it’.
"I’m like, 'Why won’t it just rotate, or do that?'" he continued. “The race pace as well, that’s been one where normally things balance out.
"If you can’t maybe get the peak in the car in one lap in quali, by the race, it should kind of settle and yet sometimes the race pace I’m like eight tenths a lap slower. And I’m just like, 'How?'
"Even in debriefs, you’ll hear from Lando, ‘Oh, this stint of the race, I could really feel the car was working there, it kind of came alive’ where I’m just like ... I never had that feeling.
“At times I’m just like: something’s up, this isn’t normal. But obviously we haven’t really got on top of that.”
Ricciardo has four races to go with McLaren before leaving the team. His future in F1 is uncertain, although a possible reserve driver spot at Mercedes might be an option for 2023.
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