Daniel Ricciardo admitted that his poor performances with McLaren this season have been too painful to deal with.
2022 has been extremely tough on Ricciardo with the Aussie struggling both on and off track. He signed a three-year deal with McLaren back in 2021, but his poor performances this year have led to the Woking-based outfit axing him with still a year remaining.
Ricciardo will leave the team at the end of the season, and 2021 F2 Champion Oscar Piastri will replace him. The 33-year-old did plan on leaving the sport on a high but his poor run of form continued at the US Grand Prix.
Austin is a place that Ricciardo absolutely adores and every single year we see him having a lot of fun in the Texan capital. This year, however, his result was so disappointing that it took out most of the fun. The honey badger qualified in 16th for the race and finished where he started, 90 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen.
Austin was not memorable this year for Daniel Ricciardo
After the race, Ricciardo lamented over yet another disastrous outing. He seemed visibly upset, and told the reporter that he had nothing to say about his result. The McLaren driver remains unsure as to why the gap between himself and Lando Norris is still so high.
Moreover, probably for the first time in his career, Ricciardo admitted that he did not have fun at the US Grand Prix in Austin. He added that he still loves the place as a city, but it was his worst Grand Prix ever because he was so off the pace.
US Grand Prix tops all of Ricciardo’s horrible 2022 results
Ricciardo has had several underwhelming performances this season. However, he chooses Austin as arguably his worst outing. Nothing looked right for him this weekend, and he was absolutely devastated after the race.
The former Red Bull driver put on a smile while speaking to the cameras, but admitted that it was really painful to do this over and over again. He has planned on bouncing back several times this year, but it’s been difficult to find pace in the MCL36 for him.
“When you think it can’t get worse, it does,” the 8 GP winner said. “I don’t know how I’m continuing to continue because painful is an understatement.”
Ricciardo has just three races to end his McLaren stint on a high. Next season, we won’t see him on the F1 grid but it’s likely that he’ll take up a reserve role somewhere. He will be hoping to get a seat at a competitive team as he plans on returning to the sport in 2024.
