Ricciardo: The competition on track will be good, it will be fierce

Having been fitted for his race seat recently as documented on McLaren's YouTube channel, Ricciardo continues another ultra seamless and smooth transition into his new team.

The Australian has failed to secure victory since the 2018 season with Red Bull Racing. Despite this, he flexed his muscles in 2020 having his strongest showing of driving ability to date and caused headaches for his once rival team McLaren along the way.

Ricciardo embarks on his 11th Formula 1 season confidently and full of optimism. The 31-year-old gets his first taste of Mercedes power, in the newly built MCL35M challenger launched today at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England.

Paired with a younger, but highly-relatable teammate Lando Norris, Ricciardo seeks to draw initial form, as he completes his McLaren transition and looks beyond to continue driving the team forward.

"Yeah, it's funny because I'm certainly the more experienced in terms of F1," he said to the media today in a pre-launch press conference. "This being my 11th season, but actually in terms of McLaren Lando has more experience.

"So, for sure there are some things I can learn from him, particularly within the team itself, you know and kind of integration into the McLaren. Every time you have a new teammate it's a real opportunity to learn something new, whether it's work ethic, or a driving technique, or both. So, yeah, I'm always pretty open-minded and I know every driver has confidence in themselves and their ability, but I am very confident as an individual, but I'm also open-minded, and if there is something that I can take from Lando and use it to better myself, then obviously I'm looking to learn as much as I can.

"I think we both have, let's say a similar approach to the game obviously we both love what we do we, we enjoy our job, I guess, and we're not afraid to show that. I think we have the same approach but also from a bit of a different generation. I think I'm 10 years on Lando. So yeah I think it actually creates quite a good combination. So I think off track we will always be seen to be having a good time. But I do believe that the competition on track will be good, it will be fierce, and more importantly, I think driving the team forward. And that's something which we really obviously want to state amongst ourselves and do the best for the team and then, you know, go for it when the lights go out."