“We had to write $16.7 Million cheque”: Zak Brown regrets not making Daniel Ricciardo contract more watertight

Zak Brown reveals that McLaren has paid Ricciardo ‘a big cheque’ of around $16.7 million to terminate his contract early.

After weeks of speculation, McLaren has officially confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo won’t be racing for the team in 2023.

Both agreed to terminate their contract prematurely amid rumours that the Woking-based outfit would replace him with Alpine junior Oscar Piastri.

Ricciardo had a contract with McLaren that was set to expire at the end of the following year. But the team have been forced to pay him off, a reported $16.7 million fee, according to Fox Sports Australia.

The Australian has struggled since joining the British team at the start of 2021. Despite ending the team’s winless streak at Monza last year.

Brown forced ‘to write a big cheque’ to pay off Ricciardo

McLaren CEO Zak Brown appeared on the High-Performance podcast just hours after Ricciardo’s sacking was made public. There he reflected on Ricciardo’s tenure with the team and admitted he would include performance clauses in future drivers’ contracts to give the team more security.

When asked if he had any regrets over the Ricciardo controversy, Brown said that he would have ensured that Ricciardo’s contract contained “protections” that allowed McLaren to sack him early without having to pay him out.

Since Ricciardo was the only party with the right to terminate the agreement early, McLaren is responsible for covering his 2023 salary also.

“My one learning there would be contractual, I don’t think we could have done something differently to make him more competitive,” Brown said.

“We tried all that. I think we’ve had to end the relationship early; we’ve had to write a big cheque. Which is fine, because that’s the deal that we cut.”

“I think what I’ll do different next time is maybe have some more performance protections for us. And not just assume that a great drivers can always be great.”

Also Read: 8 GP winner Daniel Ricciardo was better suited to the McLaren car, says Lando Norris

Brown has no explanations for Ricciardo’s struggle

Brown further claimed that despite McLaren’s best efforts to help the Australian, they were ultimately forced to sack him due to his poor performances.

Ricciardo had one of his best seasons in Formula One before joining McLaren, finishing on the podium twice for Renault. But Brown had no answer or explanations for Ricciardo’s struggle.

“We’ve tried changing cars and offering to change people. It’s been two seasons, two different cars.” He explains that it was understandable in the first year as it was all new for the 33-year-old, and he maybe didn’t gel with the car. But this year, the car was different.

“We saw it in Monza. It’s in there. The guy did not win the eighth grand Prix by accident. We just weren’t able to unlock it together. And Lando’s driving great and getting the car to perform.

“So, I don’t think there’s anything we would have done differently, or could have seen, or should have known.” Brown also revealed that he had desperately bid to keep Ricciardo by offering him a seat in McLaren’s IndyCar team.

If Ricciardo had accepted the IndyCar offer, it could have saved McLaren millions, but the Australian is adamant about staying on the F1 grid.

Also Read: McLaren offered a new job to Daniel Ricciardo in place of his $20 Million a year role in F1