The double placement in the points area of the McLaren by Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo ad Abu Dhabi it wasn’t enough for the British team to be able to reach or surpass Alpine in the constructors’ standings. In this way, therefore, 2022 of the Woking house closes not only with a 5th place finishbut also with due regards to Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian, the last driver in history to have achieved success with McLaren in F1, crossed the finish line at Yas Marina in ninth positionto then bid farewell to the English team and, momentarily, to the role of official driver in the top series.
In fact, the 32-year-old is very close to formalizing the new role of tthird guide of Red Bullbut before doing so, he wanted to comment on his last race in McLaren and his last of a 2022 that proved to be particularly complex, if not the most difficult of his F1 career: “I’m really happy to score points in my last race for McLaren – he commented – hor thought I’d do my best with the pace I had available. I struggled to keep the front tires alive. That was the biggest limitation, that’s where it made everything a bit difficult. In terms of moves, I defended when I could and overtook when I had the opportunity, so from that point of view I’m quite satisfied. Vettel caught me quite quickly in the end and I think I wore the tires a bit trying to hold him off, but I’m happy I held on and scored the points. It was a good season finale. A big thank you to the whole team – he continued – who also left me a nice message on the dashboard after the race. I appreciate it. We’ve had ups and downsbut through it all I enjoyed running with Lando and I hope I have done McLaren proud. Thanks to everyone who has supported me so far, the papaya army and everyone trackside and in Woking: I can never thank you enough. Maybe it was my last race for McLaren, but I’m looking forward to the future. I wish the team the best for next season.”.
Different speech for Lando Norris, more consistent in terms of results and ready to welcome a new teammate like Oscar Piastri, also of Australian nationality. Even before this next chapter, the Englishman commented on his race in Abu Dhabi, which ended not only at 6th placebut also with the signature on the ride faster of the race, the second this year after Monaco and the fifth in F1: “It’s the perfect way to end the season – he has declared – It was a tough race, I wasn’t far from being overtaken at the end, but we timed well. Compared to other teams, we have always struggled a little more with degradation, especially on a circuit which is limited to the front, so we knew it was going to be a tough race. I tried to build a good gap, knowing it would be like this, and we finished with a P6 and a P9 for Daniel. A good finish by two points and a perfect way to end the season, motivate the team and finish with some good points. I’m very happy, the team did a great job.”
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