19/01/2019
NEWS STORY
2019 sees an all-new line-up at Woking, as Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne go their various ways to make room for Woking protege Lando Norris and former Toro Rosso and Renault driver Carlos Sainz.
The Briton admits that beating the veteran Spaniard, who has previously partnered Max Verstappen and Nico Hulkenberg, is his first priority.
"For every driver, an aim is to beat their teammate," he tells the official F1 website. "Of course he's going to be doing the same for me. Every teammate wants to beat their teammate.
"In the ideal world, if I was perfect, I would be able to beat him or whatever teammate I have in every race," he continues. "That is very unlikely to happen. I'm not going to be in that situation. There's things I need to learn from Carlos and the different drivers.
"And I need to improve as a driver," he admits, "it's my first year so there's definitely going to be things that I'm not very good at, things I can improve and make myself a better driver in. Of course I want to beat him in some races.
"It's very unlikely anyone is always able to thrash their teammate in every race. It's my learning year and my first year of hopefully many. I want to do well, but at the same time I want to learn and make progress and become a better driver.
"In the ideal world I will be able to do well and beat everyone in every race. But that's a vision... that isn't what is going to happen for sure. I need to be able to do well and show I am a worthy driver in Formula 1."
Despite losing out on the F2 title to countryman George Russell, who will be making his F1 debut with another legendary British team currently going through a lean patch, Williams, Norris insists the experience has helped him.
"In some ways, last year I didn't win the championship, so it was a good enough year for me to learn that I can't always win," he said. "I don't mean to be arrogant but I've always been with good teams, always had good people around me, and that has helped me be a better driver. That has helped me win races and championships. I have been able to experience different things to other drivers.
"At the same time, Formula 1 is very different, every year there are big changes and you can't always be where you want to. That's something I have to learn, something I have started to learn last year: how you have to develop and progress, and become better as a team.
"In Formula 2 and Formula 3, it's a one-make series. There are smaller things you can change, but you can still be separate to other teams. In F1, everything is different. Different people, car, different engine, and so on.
"There are a lot of things you have to put together to become better overall. That's one of the things I'm not going to be perfect at, but over time I will become better - and be a better driver in terms of helping myself and the team, and one day hopefully win a world championship."