When McLaren first announced in 2020 that Daniel Ricciardo would be joining them to fill the seat that would be vacated by Carlos Sainz Jnr for 2021, it seemed like the perfect match.
McLaren were gaining an established grand prix winner with nine-and-a-half seasons of experience who had brought Renault back onto the podium multiple times during 2020. Alongside the highly promising talent Lando Norris, it would be hard to blame McLaren CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andreas Seidl for feeling very encouraged for the team’s future.
But whatever McLaren, Ricciardo or the team’s legions of fans expected from having the Australian join the team, it would not have been a pattern of consistently underwhelming results and a total points difference of 102 between Norris and Ricciardo scored over 35 races together so far.
With Formula 1 resting over the summer, rumours and reports indicate that McLaren are now actively looking to escape from their contractual commitment with Ricciardo for 2023 – with Oscar Piastri’s dispute with Alpine not unrelated to the situation at McLaren.
But would McLaren be correct to drop Ricciardo – one of the most successful drivers of his generation – just half way through their three season agreement with him?
For
Certainly since Formula 1 entered the 21st Century, it’s hard to think of a driver signing that has been as underwhelming as Daniel Ricciardo joining McLaren – especially given what Ricciardo had previously achieved at Toro Rosso, Red Bull and Renault prior to joining Woking.
Rather than being the elder, experienced leader among the team’s two drivers, Ricciardo has regularly been made to look like a rookie in comparison to Norris – a driver who is literally two-thirds his age. In their time sharing the garage together, Norris has secured five podium finishes, while Ricciardo only has a single one to his name.
Ricciardo’s difficult first season with McLaren was excused for the difficulty in adapting to a new car for 2021, which was largely an evolution of the 2020 car. Many other drivers who switched teams last season also struggled relative to their team mates.
But 2022 was supposed to be a reset for Ricciardo and allow him to begin afresh – yet his deficit to Norris is now greater than it ever has been. With McLaren locked in a battle with Alpine for fourth in the constructors’ championship, they cannot afford to be reliant on Norris alone to take the fight to Alpine when both Fernando Alonso and…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…