F1 | McLaren, Norris on the relationship with Sainz: "There was a perfect combination between being teammates and rivals"

Over the last two seasons, McLaren has made great strides forward, reaching third place in the constructors' championship, achieved in the 2020 championship. The Woking team has achieved these results thanks to the arrival of new personnel, additions of quality, excellent programming and a pair of top-level drivers, who were able to make the most of the means at their disposal and collaborate in order to make the team's work easier.

Externally, the relationship between Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris immediately seemed to be one of the best within the paddock, so much so that team managers have repeatedly praised this collaboration which was able to bring out the best in the team. A perfect combination between being a teammate and being an opponent, as the English driver himself described it: “I had never spoken to Carlos before he arrived at McLaren. I didn't know him, I didn't know he was like that. We became good friends away from the track, but also rivals on the track and good teammates. We wanted the team to take a step forward, we wanted to win races and we worked in harmony, but we were competitive against each other. We just worked well in these aspects, as teammates and as opponents. I think we had the perfect combination of these two elements,” Norris explained during an interview with Motorsport.com.

Despite this, however, there were also difficult moments, as the Englishman revealed, despite sometimes trying to mask them: "There is always tension between teammates, even when someone says it isn't there, in reality is always there. Maybe sometimes you try to hide it, even between me and Carlos" – said Norris -. “Although most of the time it always seemed like we were happy and got along well, there were times when we hated each other. You don't want to give it away to your teammate, the last person you want to get beat by is your teammate. Even when you smile, sometimes inside you dig deep, and you really hate them because they are fast or do things that you find difficult, or sometimes you can't match them,” the McLaren driver then added. Starting next year, however, Lando's partner will no longer be Sainz, as in the last two seasons, but Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian driver coming from Renault, who during his career has already demonstrated several times that he is extremely competitive .