With a premature contract termination, Daniel Ricciardo will leave McLaren at the end of the season.
McLaren said they and Ricciardo had “mutually agreed” on the split, but the team also revealed they initiated the discussion.
A follow-up announcement is expected where McLaren will likely confirm the signing of Australian Formula 2 champion and Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri.
McLaren hasn’t revealed a 2023 driver line-up but has said they’ll make an announcement “in due course”.
Lando Norris remains under contract with the team until 2025.
One year earlier than expected
McLaren terminated Ricciardo’s contract twelve months before it was due to expire because of unsatisfactory performances from the eight-time GP winner.
Compared to his teammate Norris, Ricciardo has been 0.356 seconds slower in qualifying this term and has notably qualified three positions behind.
With 76 points on the board, Norris is five places higher in the championship, sitting in the seventh position up against Ricciardo’s 19 points and 12th-place position. Even the best sportsbook promo codes can’t assist bettors in finding luck on betting Ricciardo, who has notably had one of his worst seasons to date.
And despite winning a race for McLaren during last year’s Italian Grand Prix, the Australian hasn’t been the intelligent betting choice and was also outperformed by Norris in 2021.
Andreas Seidl, McLaren’s team principal, commented: “There was a contract, and it needed mutual agreement to terminate it early, but after discussion with Daniel, we felt it was the right thing for both sides to split ways for next year.”
He continued: “If you look back at the last 18 months of our journey together, Daniel and McLaren, it’s clear we haven’t achieved the result we wanted, despite highlights like the great win in Monza last year.
“That’s why we had a lot of discussions, but in the end, we had to acknowledge we did not make it work together despite the commitment that was there from Daniel’s side and all the effort the team has put in, and that’s why we came to the agreement we would terminate the contract at the end of this year.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but we want to put all the effort to finish the relationship on a high.”
What’s next for Ricciardo?
Ricciardo released a statement but failed to discuss any permanent plans for the future. McLaren’s Racing chief Zak Brown did say the Aussie wanted to continue in Formula One.
Ricciardo said: “Regardless of what this next chapter brings, I have no regrets and am proud of the effort and work I have done for McLaren, especially the win in Monza last season.
“I’ve enjoyed working with everyone at McLaren both trackside and back in Woking [at the factory] and will be giving my all on and off track as we enjoy the remainder of the season together.
“I’ve never been more motivated to compete and be a part of a sport that I love so much and look forward to what comes next.”
Seidl and Brown both expressed their “surprise” in not being able to solve the problems with Ricciardo, and Seidl commented it was “unfortunate we have ended up in this position.”
Seidl continued: “He said it himself – we simply didn’t manage as a team to make him feel fully comfortable in the car, especially when it came to going to the absolute limit in qualifying.
“We tried a lot, but unfortunately, we didn’t make it work.
“For an F1 driver, pulling off performance, he needs to be fully one with the car. If you remember all the comments Daniel made about the challenges, we simply didn’t manage to get him as comfortable with the car as Lando was.
“We put in a lot of effort and commitment to help him; he put in a lot of effort as well. But we still didn’t manage to unlock these percentages that were missing.”
While a return to F1 is the primary choice for Ricciardo, the Australian isn’t ruling out a short break from the sport. The former Red Bull standout believes a sabbatical could assist him in evaluating his options with the chance to find his past form.
Let’s not forget that he was once aligned with the potential to become a future champion, but since leaving Red Bull, he hasn’t delivered the same on-track performances.
