Daniel Ricciardo under threat from lossing McLaren race seat
May 28 2022 , 10:28 am
Despite Daniel Ricciardo’s three-year contract, Zak Brown says there are “mechanisms in which we’re not” committed to seeing out the duration of the deal.
And that comes from both sides, the driver’s and McLaren’s.
Joining McLaren last season, Ricciardo signed a three-year contract that has an option for a fourth season.
But falling short of his team-mate Lando Norris’ mark, as well as McLaren’s expectations, rumours that this season could be his last with the Woking team are gaining momentum.
Ricciardo has downplayed that, as well Brown’s comments about McLaren’s expectations not being met, telling the media in Monaco that his skin is “tanned, beautiful and also thick“.
He also said it is “clear” that he has a contract “until the end of 2023”.
Brown, though, has revealed there are clauses that allow either party to end the relationship early.
“I don’t want to get into the contract [details],” the McLaren CEO said as per The Race, “but there are mechanisms in which we’re committed to each other and then there’s mechanisms in which we’re not.
“I’ve spoken with Daniel about it, we’re not getting the results that we both hoped for, but we’re both going to continue to push.
“I think he showed at Monza he can win races. We also need to continue to develop our race car, it’s not capable of winning races, but we’d like to see him further up the grid.
“We’ll just play it – I don’t want to say ‘one race at a time’ because we’re not going to one race at a time – but we’ll just see how things develop, what he wants to do.”
At a time when Ricciardo is under severe pressure the Aussie didn’t do himself any favours when he crashed in FP2 for the Monaco Grand Prix.
He put it into the barrier at the Swimming Pool section, his session over after just 15 minutes.
“I knew everything that was happening,” he said. “I tried to save it but already kind of into Turn 13 I already started losing it.
“I can feel the car was starting to get away from me. And yeah, a little strange. I think normally you could probably pick up some stuff maybe on Turn 14 on the kerb. If you kind of get a bit too greedy then the car can get unloaded.”
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