The McLaren team will try to find out why Daniel Ricciardo lacked pace last weekend at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with the Australian finishing the F1 race in a lowly 13th place outside the points. The reality this is simply a precursor to the team from Woking giving the Australian his marching orders, soon to be announced publically.
Daniel Ricciardo was 14th on the grid at the British Grand Prix and managed to gain only one race position on Sunday despite six retirements. The McLaren driver explained after the finish of the tenth round of the year that his car had absolutely no pace, while a DRS failure further penalised him in the second half of the race.
“The car just didn’t seem to be running at the same level of grip as the others. I could also feel it through the tyres when I was trying to maintain speed,” said Daniel Ricciardo after the race finish.
“It’s strange, so we’ll have to investigate that. Then I had a DRS problem, which meant I couldn’t use it after lap 31 of the race, which is also a bit of a shame.
Obviously it’s very difficult to overtake without it, but generally speaking we weren’t quick enough, it was a lonely afternoon.”
On the team management side, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl explained that Daniel Ricciardo was never able to set competitive lap times throughout the weekend and that an “in-depth analysis” will take place this week ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix to try to understand “what was wrong with the Australian’s car”.
“Daniel’s weekend did not go as planned, which will require an in-depth analysis over the next few days. He was unable to set competitive lap times yesterday [Saturday’s qualifying] and today [Sunday’s race]. In addition, he experienced a DRS failure which necessitated an extra pit stop mid-race and forced him to run without DRS in the second half of the race,” said the German.
After the British Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo is thirteenth in the drivers’ championship with 15 points so far this year, while his team-mate Lando Norris has already scored 58 points.
Obviously, this is simply not good enough, and the team has had enough. Ricciardo has underperformed continuously throughout his tenure at the Woking based team with even McLaren CEO Zak Brown alluding to Ricciardo being dropped sooner rather than later.
It is understood that during the summer break, a new driver will be announced with Daniel Ricciardo leaving McLaren, and most likely, leaving Formula 1 entirely. Quite who will replace the Australian is yet to be understood.
MORE F1: Italian press rage at Binotto
Mattia Binotto is attempting a revolution at Formula One team Ferrari, but will he succeed? In a quite remarkable statement released yesterday from Maranello following the 2022 British GP, Binotto made it clear his regime would not favour Charles Leclerc over Carlos Sainz. “Our priority is always to maximise the situation in order for the best team result,“ Mattio insisted.
Ferrari have traditionally backed one driver over the other based on their standing in the drivers’ championship creating a de facto No.1 and No.2 within the team……. READ MORE ON THIS STORY
Danny used to be a great driver in the red bull looks like he has lost a lot of confidence since leaving red bull it’s not the same car as he’s used to ,brakes are different aero is different this all adds up either mclaren change his race set up with the car or get another driver to replace him these are the only options they have but to be fair Change the set up and try get him used to this car for 3 month if it doesn’t work then tell him to leave to be honest this mcl36 goes up and down with performance alot more than the top trams to be fair I only see mclaren as a challenging mid league team you even see it in landos car aswell the car is not in the top six mclaren need to be on this like 2 month ago
I think its fair to say since last season up till now, Danny Ric in Mclaren has not performed at all. Yes, he won in Monza but if the team let Lando race him there, pretty sure he lose out or due to the hunger to win, crash into his teammate.
Blaming the car which undermine your race is a fair point but when does it end? If Lando can score a podium in Imola with new regs and aero, that excuse is no longer credible. I’d say Danny has lost his touch or can’t cope with the new driving style. Yeah, he was great in RedBull, heck he was pretty good as well in Renault but in Mclaren? Im sorry to all Danny Ric’s fan but given his track record from his 2 old team, his stint in Mclaren is rubbish.
I think Daniel lacks a lot of confidence, either that or McLaren car does not suit his style. At redbull he was at least challenging. Now it’s like watching a man try and try to climb up Everest with no body parts other than head and torso
What are the sources?
Sometimes we get sources we can’t quote. We wrote about Aston Martin not having their car ready and the real car would come during the season. Hey presto! The Red Bull copy appeared as predicted
I’m still wholly positive Mclaren will honor his 3-year deal until the end.
Is it possible DR never was the driver we thought he was? It just didn’t show until he got teamed against better drivers.
Lol. All these comments.. its the combination of a crap engineer James Key, a crap design, crap aero, crap Pirelli tyres that are so bad along with aero that nobody overtakes like they used to, its a train. McLaren can delete Danny and maybe they’ll get a young guy who can slide more on crap Pirellis but they should also admit that they have a shit car.
Norris does pretty good in that shit car. And everybody has the same pirelli’s… 🤔
Have always been a great fan of the hard charging, late breaking Danny Ric. Somehow he has completely lost his touch at McClaren? Lando is super-talented, but something has gone missing from the Aussie’s arsenal.
What a load of crap if landos is so good why is he not consistently in the top 5 race day it’s ok to out perform your partner but not the rest of the field the car is a failure
Lol, if anything is a load of crap, it’s this comment. Sure, the car isn’t capable of winning a race, but Daniel isn’t capable of getting a podium.
Did you just arrive at F1? Dan is a multi time race winner. Blatantly hobbled by RBR in 2018 in favour of Mac when he was capable of a WC.
F1 is still a snob euro circus.
I think many people underestimate just how good Lando is. Sure Danny isn’t developing the car in any way and seems unsuited to the new breed of FQ but it would be foolish to overlook Lando’s quality. Him, Max, George and Charles will be fighting it out for years, providing they have decent machines under them
Of course Dan’s results have nothing to do with consistent botched up strategies or pit stops.. the latter particularly at Silverstone.
What a beat up. Sainz left because the car was a pos. Golden haired Nando is getting a bulk of the budget cap to make the pig of a car drivable. Remember Nando has not dtiven another F1 car to campare.
As fans we’ve had enough of McLarens excuses for a garbage car. Imo Zac Brown has no idea, he’s just a rich enthusiast punter.
It’s not a podium car but it ain’t a car that’s 13th either. Sorry and I’ve always like Danny