Daniel Ricciardo is among the most highly-rated drivers in F1, but his struggles in McLaren are not even near their end claims Zak Brown.
Ever since debuting for McLaren in 2021, Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t been able to live up to his potential with the Woking-based team. His far less experienced teammate Lando Norris is easily performing better than him.
McLaren boss Zak Brown himself claims that Norris surely has an edge over Ricciardo. But he also claimed that he definitely wants an intra-team battle and his team is doing everything to help Ricciardo.
However, the Australian race driver is unable to perform to expectations. Thus, McLaren yet again is struggling in the constructors’ standings against their rivals.
“Lando [Norris] definitely has an edge,” said Brown to SkySports, “Obviously, we would like to see Daniel [Ricciardo] much closer to Norris and have a good inter-team battle.”
“Ricciardo is just not comfortable yet with the car. We are trying everything we can. Again, it was a disappointing weekend. It’s kind of short of Monza weekends.”
“He generally not met his or our expectations. I think all you can do is keep working hard as a team. Keep communications going, keep pushing, and hope whatever is not clicking at the moment, clicks here shortly.”
🗣️”Daniel’s just not comfortable yet with the car”
🗣️”Lando is one of the best drivers in the world at the moment”Zak Brown gives his thoughts on the inter-team battle between Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo 🟠 pic.twitter.com/UeKA42a1PD
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 23, 2022
Also read: Daniel Ricciardo sought Red Bull’s attention to survive in Europe back in 2008
Zak Brown will never yell at Daniel Ricciardo
As Brown kept sharing his views on Ricciardo, the interviewer asked how does he approach his driver’s struggles in the team. Does he shout at them or keep an arm around their shoulder?
“All drivers are different, I’ve dealt with Pablo Montoya, Fernando Alonso to our current drivers,” Brown added. “Generally, I think it’s no different than any employee in any job.”
“You want to put people in a position where they’re comfortable. Drivers put enough pressure on themselves. There is a big mental element to the sport. So I think, my job is to get drivers in the best frame of mind.”
“They’re all different, so you treat them differently, I’m not a yeller and screamer. Some people are, you look at Red Bull, they’re pretty tough on their drivers publically, that’s not my approach.”
Also read: Daniel Ricciardo gets surprising feedback by talk show host James Corden
