Is McLaren going to move on from Daniel Ricciardo? Will he retire at the end of the year?
Those are the two questions that won’t seem to go away right now. Ricciardo’s form since joining McLaren has been disappointing and so far short of the expectations set when he joined the team last season.
This week, Ricciardo took to Instagram to clarify his current situation.
The Australian posted on Wednesday: “There have been a lot of rumours about my future in Formula One but I want you to hear it from me. I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and not walking away from the sport.
“Appreciate it hasn’t always been easy, but who wants easy! I’m working my a– off with the team to make improvements and get the car right back to the front where it belongs. I still want this more than ever.”
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) July 13, 2022
While Ricciardo has played a big role in Formula One’s recent boom period, most new fans have probably struggled to see why the seven-time race winner has been labelled one of the sport’s best drivers. Bar his remarkable shock win at the Italian Grand Prix last year, his performances for McLaren have been short of the name he built for himself during stints at Red Bull and Renault. Reputations in F1 are hard earned and easily lost.
But the reality of the situation is far more simple than many of the rumours appear to make out.
Can McLaren move on from Ricciardo?
If McLaren is unwilling to pay a lot of money to tear up his deal, the simple answer to this appears to be — no.
The fact Ricciardo felt his statement, which was effectively ‘man with contract says he will stay at team he is contracted to’, needed to be said speaks volumes to just how loud some of the noise around his future has been in recent weeks. That noise has almost exclusively been generated by McLaren.
In May, when company CEO Zak Brown was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he dropped a bombshell quote when he said that the team had “mechanisms” in Ricciardo’s contract that could see them move on from the Australian this year. It may not be coincidental that a few days later on the other side of the Atlantic, Ricciardo hit perhaps his lowest point of this season, qualifying 14th and then finishing 13th in a totally ordinary display at the Monaco Grand Prix, an event he won in 2018.Coming so…
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