Now in his fifth season, Norris has noted the need for a teammate who can keep pace with him.
He soundly outgunned Daniel Ricciardo in 2022, out-qualifying him 20 times out of 22 races.
Already this year, Piastri has beaten Norris in one of the three qualifying sessions to date.
The young Australia made it to Q3 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix while Norris is yet to make it that far.
In qualifying at the Albert Park Grand Prix, Piastri failed to make it out of Q1 Circuit, missing the cut by just 0.046s.
Nevertheless, it’s all good news for Norris who now has a teammate who can match him.
“He’s keeping me on my toes,” said Norris.
“He’s understood the car well. It’s obviously not an easy car to drive, I think that’s been made clear with past drivers and comments I’ve made over the years.
“He did a very good job in Saudi, he got into Q3, the only Q3 this year so far.
“We want the same thing in general and that’s a good thing; a better dynamic. From both sides, off track and on track … good stuff.
“Yeah, keeping me on my toes.”‘
McLaren team boss Zak Brown has been similarly impressed by Piastri, echoing Norris’ sentiment.
“What we want to have is two drivers that are pushing each other and I think early indications are that Oscar will be on the same pace as Lando and the two of them will push each other hard,” Brown said.
“That’s what you want out of your two drivers, to know that it’s kind of down to you as a team to provide them with a car to get to the front.
“I’m confident when you look down the list of things you need to have a winning team, having two grand prix drivers is critically important and I think we’ve got that.”
Piastri will start the Australian Grand Prix from 16th while Norris will line up in 13th.
The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix gets underway at 3pm on Sunday.
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