McLaren has ‘mechanisms’ that could end Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 deal early

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has hinted there are “mechanisms” within Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 contract that could allow for an early break in his deal. 
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL36.
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL36.

Upon making the switch from Renault 💖to McLaren, Ricciardo signed a three-year deal that, in theory, will keep him at the Woking outfit until the end of the 2023 season. 

The Australian finds himself under increasing pressure after a difficult start to life at McLaren, with B⛄rown recently admitting that Ricciardo’s performances have not met the team’s expectations.

Ricciardo accepted Brown’s claim as being “pretty true" but the eight-time grand prix winner insisted he remains confident he can turn ෴things 🧜around. 

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“I don’t want to get into the contract, but there are mechanisms in which we’re committed to eachౠ other, and mechanisms in which weಞ’re not,” Brown said in Monaco. 

“I spoke with Daniel about it. We’re not getting the results that w🍃e both hoped for, but we’re both going to continue to push.

“I think he showed in Monza [las💎t year] he can win races. We also need to develop our race car; it’s not capable of winning races. B🐻ut we’d like to see him further up the grid.

“And we’ll see how things d✅evelop and what he wants to do. And then we’ve got our testing programme ramping up, but we’re🍒 in no rush.”

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 7, Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, Monaco,
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 7, Monaco Grand Prix,…

Ricciardo’s misery continues in Monaco 

Ricciardo’s tough start to the 2022 season continued on Friday when he cras🍷hed at the swimming pool during his first flying lap of second pract🍌ice. 

It marked the first ♏crash of the weekend and acted as a setback to Ricciardo’s preparations on a weekend where his teammate Lando Norris once again appears to hold the advantage, despite still recovering from tonsillitis. 

As a result of the damage pi𝓡cked up on his car, Ricciardo has only had one hour of running so far this weekend, leaving him with one final 60 minute session on Saturday ahead of the all-important qualifying. 

Ricciardo desc🎃ribed the crash as “strange” but conceded he had pushed his set-up too far ahead of the incident. 

“It was strange,” he said. “I think if anyone crashes there you normally see on the exit if they take maybe too much curb at Turn 14 and then lose the car. I already started losing the car pretty much b♔efore Turn 13. We pushed it too much with a few things with set-up.

“We had a good morning and obviously you try a few things for FP2, try to maximise a bit more performance but let’s say we overstepped it and yo♈u don’t know until you try.

“It was my first lap, so I couldn’t really get much of a read, it obviously happened straight away. I’m OK, and the boys and girls have some🔥 work to do tonight but it’s OK.

“We’ll c🙈ome back tomorrow, it’sꦓ a little bit of a shame but I’m still confident. I had a good feeling this morning so I can recover and we as a team can too.”

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