McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has said he is willing to shoulder some of the responsibility for Daniel Ricciardo’s struggle to secure results over the past two seasons, which ultimately led to his decision to terminate his contract. the Australian team a year early.
On Wednesday, McLaren confirms Ricciardo’s departure at the end of the season following a “bilateral” agreement between the team and the driver.
Ricciardo’s departure is expected to make way for the arrival of Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri, who have an agreement with McLaren for next year but is awaiting approval from the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board (CRB), which is set to rule on whether Alpine makes a stronger claim to his services. for next season or not.
Seidl declined to confirm the identity of Riccio’s replacement during Wednesday’s press conference, but said McLaren’s decision to change the driver lineup was as a result.
“I think we’ve both commented several times on the challenges we faced on the Daniel’s garage side in regards to extracting the same performance of the car as on the Lando side,” Seidl said. speak.
“Daniel has said many times that he has never felt completely comfortable in our car, especially when it comes to pushing the car to its absolute limit. In the end, that’s what caused the disparity. time zone difference for Lando.
“At the same time, we have technology that tells us Lando is an excellent driver, so he [Ricciardo] was up against one of the best in the lawn. This ultimately led us to the decision.
“In the end he didn’t do the job. For a driver, being able to extract performance from the car is a joint effort between the driver and the team, so I just wanted to be clear. that I can totally do it, the team leader can’t find the magic to figure out the percentages that we’ve seen from time to time.
“That’s why we’ve finally come to the conclusion that we’ll go our separate ways next year.”
Asked about the awkward timing of the announcement ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix and before the deal with Piastri is finalized, Seidl said it was better to confirm Ricciardo’s departure than to leave the subject open for speculation. guess in the second half of the season.
“In our view, it’s important to have clarity and transparency,” he added. “Once the decision is made, I think it’s best to announce it and move on. Yes, that’s going to be very important now, today and for the next two days, and Daniel will do the same, to Answer all questions related to today.
“But obviously we want to focus on the Spa race weekend and then the final nine races of the season together, because the goal that we’re working on with Daniel, is to make sure that We complete our time together at a high level.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed he is open to finding a spot for Ricciardo at the brand’s IndyCar team, but the Australian driver has made it clear he only wants to race F1 next year.
“Yes, we talked about that,” Brown said. “We have a lot of different racing activities. That said, he’s very focused on F1. So of course the door will always be open at McLaren here, but I believe he’s really real. have a desire to continue to participate in F1.”
Brown also revealed that the decision to get rid of Ricciardo was the hardest he’s made since taking the helm of McLaren at the end of 2016.
“As Andreas just said, Daniel is a wonderful person and a great person to be with,” Brown said. “We had a lot of laughs. We sprayed champagne together and it was very personal. So today was a very sad day when things didn’t go as we hoped. I’ll look back with some very fond memories, good times together on and off the track.
“We are in business where Andreas and everyone at McLaren need to focus on top performance. We hope and wish Daniel the best. There is absolutely no malice between us. All are all very friendly.
“He also had a good time at McLaren and he is young so we hope to see him in a competitive race car and one of these days we might see him. He’s been a pain for us on the track and that’s going to be fun because he’s a great competitor.”
