McLaren’s pressure on Daniel Ricciardo might not be overt to the casual Formula 1 fan, but it is intense within the Woking team – Daniel Ricciardo is under contract until 2023, but he is under pressure in his second season at McLaren. The Woking team’s contract strategy has evolved but it is influenced by the past. It is now clear that Ricciardo will be out of McLaren soon.
Despite a win in 2021, Ricciardo was always in the shadow of Lando Norris last season. The young British driver accumulated far more podiums and points, while his Australian teammate suffered in the lower half of the grid. Not understanding what was happening to him. There was even a time when Ricciardo asked team CEO Zak Brown to stop his contract at the end of the year and terminate his drive. The victory in Monza gave the Australian driver a reprieve for a time, but not for much longer.
Historically, teams often lose their top drivers for two reasons: the first is the lack of competitiveness of the equipment, the second is the lack of confidence in the driver. A decision for a driver to leave is based solely on these two considerations. The McLaren case is not really about the lack of competitiveness of the equipment… but a real inconsistency with Ricciardo has got the McLaren team looking elsewhere.
Mclaren and its age culture
Going back a little earlier in the history of the team, back in 2016 Jenson Button was 36 years old and McLaren is reluctant to extend the partnership with him, not least due to the fact he was in his late 30’s.
Looking even further back, McLaren driver John Watson was 37 in 1983 in his last season with the Woking team. Lauda was 36 in 1985.
David Coutlhard was 33, Mika Hakkinen 32, Martin Brundle 35, Keke Rosberg 38, Alain Prost 34, Ayrton Senna 33. Apart from Nigel Mansell who was 41 in 1995 and the regrets of the past (return of Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen etc…) it is not in the culture of McLaren to have drivers older than 35 years.
Beyond that it’s a decline. The exception recently Button and Alonso who was 37 in his final season in 2018. But there is an internal culture. Crucially, in 2023, Daniel Ricciardo will be 34.
Just before the presentation of the MCL36, McLaren announced the extension of Lando Norris’ contract until 2025. A clear act of intention, taking inspiration from the one made in December 2019 when Ferrari extended Charles Leclerc’s contract, without his teammate, Sebastian Vettel.
A few months later, Vettel announced that his third year of the 2020 contract was his last with the Scuderia. A page was turned. The man of 2015 was no longer the future, a young driver was taking over. A strange similarity between Maranello and Woking was taking hold today.
Ricciardo’s speech sounds like Vettel’s in 2019. So the signs are not pointing in the direction of an extension of the contract beyond the current deal signed between McLaren and Ricciardo.
Load or horseshit. Ricciardo will be at McLaren beyond 2023
Unfortunately it’s always experience versus youth….
100%
Last person I would want to team with would be a back stabbing,egotistical little smart arse like Lando! Our Aussie deserves better than the shit(equipment) that McLaren are giving our star driver. Daniel deserves equal equipment & opportunity that he hasn’t been gettinf in the past. He will prove this…IF given equal equipment! Go Ozzie,go,go,go!!! I have the faith!
Interesting but a lot of assumptions. Performance is based on far more than results alone . The data will tell the story but you’re right, there have been very few drivers in their mid 30’s as competitive as their younger team mates.
Thatss what they thought at red bull too in 2018…
Ricardo case is simply he did not deliver even if the car was not the best but Lando showed he was the real deal in most of the races he took.
Ricardo was not up to speed nor was he fighting hard enough with the car given compared to Lando.
What a load of Fu**ing garbage this story is, who writes this shite
👍👍on the money!!! Call it true for what it is!
Truly, the team made a statement that there is much more to come this year from daniel and that they fully back him
What a load of absolute horseshit. Leave that for your shit for you family talk at dinner.
What the hell is this shit
This might be the worst article I’ve read about anything ever.
This site has zero credibility.More chance of this site being closed down for gutter trash nonsense than RIcciardo leaving McLaren. Zak and the team love him. Open your eyes and stop talking horseshit.
Big Ricciardo fan, but I think you’re right. Even if he does well this season.
Absolute load of shit haha
I think Ricciardo was left with legacy equipment of McLarens last few years and there was no desire for them to change anything. Lando had been instrumental in the cars development and was already running with its idiosyncratic behaviour. Last years car was a cut and shut for the regulation change. This years car is going to be a ground up change and should be a reset for team, drivers, and tracks. Daniel has enough experience to get more from the situation this time around, I do think that if he doesn’t feel wanted there or Lando has another better year he will look to change the situation. Lando has proven to be a lot faster then pundits thought. The kid is very quick with the McLaren family around him and at the moment hes sure making it count.
Click bait tittle, rubbish reflection of how the two went last year factoring in the time in the team. Really sad this comes up on my feed.
Did the Sun write this shit? Lando had a years experience in that car, ALL driver who changed teams except Sainz struggled in the early part. He was up to speed at the end but the car had fallen back.
“his late 30’s.” – there shouldn’t be an apostrophe in the plural “30s”.
You can tell by the tone from some of these people that they are Ricardo fans and nothing wrong with that but let’s face facts….
Did he do well or just enough to see out his contract and I for one will say that he is lucky to still have a contract at all but this is how the sport goes.
You are either a future championship winner or not and at this point Ricardo is not so he should be looking elsewhere.
F1 is a brutal sport and most of the big teams will not waste time and money on a driver they see as non championship contenders.
I wonder what drives one to write such a retarded article accompanied by an even more retarded title. This cunt has something medically wrong with them surely.