There are a number of exciting changes to come in the Formula 1 field of 2021. One of them is Daniel Ricciardo, who will accompany Lando Norris at McLaren.
It is always a challenge to hire a new driver to join a team, especially if he already has as much Formula 1 experience as Ricciardo. In addition, together with Norris, he only has three days to test the McLaren before the start of the season.
Extra challenge for McLaren
There's an additional challenge for McLaren as they are also going to use engines from another supplier as they are switching from Renault to Mercedes.
However, McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl already has a plan to get Ricciardo into the team as soon as possible. "The engineers will be eager to share data with him, but we need to make the right choices. We don't have much time to test, even less than usual," Seidl said to The-Race.com.
"The goal is to make it look like Daniel has been driving with us for a long time. From there we can continue to work," Seidl continued.
"We have a clear plan. The focus is on the technical side, on racing. But at the same time, we have a program for the communicative side, to integrate him into the team as well as possible. That starts right away in January."