McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown claims he is still a Daniel Ricciardo fan and was forced to terminate the Aussie’s contract due to a lack of results.
Following the 2022 F1 Summer break, McLaren terminated Daniel Ricciardo’s contract. The Aussie was let go of his F1 seat a year early and will be replaced by the rookie and 2021 F2 Champion Oscar Piastri.
Daniel’s saga with McLaren came to a screeching halt as months of speculation concluded with him vacating his McLaren seat. The Aussie had struggled to adapt to his team’s cars.
And this resulted in a lack of points for the Aussie. He was beaten by his younger teammate Lando Norris in 2021 despite securing a win. And the streak continued in 2022, eventually leading to his exit.
But Ricciardo is still one of the most loved drivers in the F1 grid. His friendly, ever-smiling nature added to his humour makes him one of the most fun personalities in the F1 grid.
The driver is capable of being the best on track too. Which he established in 2014 and 2016 when he ended 3rd in the driver’s standings, only behind the two Mercedes drivers.
Zak Brown claims he has always admired Ricciardo and the driver that he is. And letting go of a driver like him wasn’t easy. Zak said, “I’m a huge Daniel fan.”
He added, “I’m still a huge Daniel fan and that will never change, I asked him if he wanted to drive for us in IndyCar or Formula E.”
The team did offer the Aussie that chance to continue racing with McLaren. But Ricciardo declined as he felt he wasn’t over F1 and wanted to explore more options.
To which Brown adds, “It’s probably the toughest thing I’ve had in my time in motorsports. It wasn’t pleasant, not fun.”
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Why did Zak Brown terminate Daniel Ricciardo’s contract?
Daniel Ricciardo gave McLaren their first F1 victory in 9 years by winning the 2021 Italian GP. But apart from that, his performances were sub-par.
Ricciardo suffered a slum in form towards the end of the season. This costed the team to lose the 2021 Constructors championship.
The lack of consistent results was against the Aussie’s favour claims Zak Brown. He said, “Ultimately, we weren’t getting the results we needed and we were a year-and-a-half into this.”
Brown adds, “We’ve all tried extremely hard. We love Daniel, he’s great to work with and continues to be great to work with. But we are in the results business and the results weren’t coming and we felt we tried everything.”
This extends in 2022 where Ricciardo has managed to score in only 5 of the 18 races so far. After the 2022 Japanese GP, he stands 12th in the standings with 29 points, 72 points behind Lando.
Brown added, “We don’t know why it didn’t click, it’s kind of nobody’s fault. We gave it our best, he gave it his best, and we just kind of ran out of things to try.”
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Daniel Ricciardo’s future is still unclear
The cracks in Daniel Ricciardo’s and McLaren’s relationship were visible from the start of the mid-season. The two downplayed any rumours of a split, with both Zak Brown and Ricciardo denying speculations.
Ricciardo even wrote a lengthy post confirming his allegiance with the team. But in the background, McLaren was trying to rope in Oscar Piastri from Alpine for the 2023 seat.
But Zak Brown claimed the entire discussion regarding the 8-GP winning driver’s future was made clear. This included the $10 Million severance he received from McLaren for the early termination of his contract.
“We were transparent through the whole process and I know there had been tons of media speculation about when it happened, how it happened,” Brown said recently.
Ricciardo does not have any options to race in F1 for the upcoming season. The driver has stated that he will be taking a sabbatical. He has denied any interest in racing elsewhere but only time could tell if he wishes to race in the Americas.
Also Read: Daniel Ricciardo will return to Formula One with a new approach according to his agent Nick Thimm
