Norris excited by new challenge of Ricciardo partnership

Lando Norris says he is excited by the prospect of Formula 1 race winner Daniel Ricciardo joining McLaren in 2021, admitting it will be a different challenge compared to Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari moved for Sainz to replace Sebastian Vettel at the Scuderia from next year onwards, with Ricciardo in turn being signed by McLaren. At the same time as the Australian’s arrival was announced, McLaren confirmed Norris would be remaining with the team in 2021 and the British youngster is enthusiastic about his new teammate.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be a good season I think next year!” Norris said during the Supercars All Stars Eseries. “I look forward to it, we’ve had a good few laughs already over the past couple of years and he’s a really nice guy -- we get along well.

“We’ve still got this season -- we’ve still got to start it yet but to try and finish off well between Carlos and myself and then we start looking ahead to a kind of a new start and a different challenge for next year. But I look forward to having Danny as a teammate; he’s obviously a multiple race winner and of course he’s Australian, so it’s going to be good fun!”

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Norris was talking to the Australian presenting team of the Supercars event while making his third wild card appearance in the series. However, he had a tough run in races on the oval at Charlotte and the road course at Daytona, being involved in a number of incidents that after leading during the first race and ending up with a best finish of 14th in race two before dropping out of the final round.

While Norris has previously told RACER he is keen to take on the Indy 500 and a number of other races -- including the Rolex 24 At Daytona -- alongside Formula 1 if the opportunity allows, the Supercars team also raised the possibility of a Bathurst 1000 attempt for both Norris and Ricciardo, as McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is a team principal for Walkinshaw Andretti United. The team ran Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe in a wild card entry in 2019.