Because there are many who believe that Ricciardo, who had a firm contract until 2023, should have been given more time to unlock the speed that everyone knows is inside him.
But F1 is not a championship where being nice offers guaranteed rewards. It’s a brutal arena where success and failure are measured in tenths of a second, and if any element of your pack isn’t working, it needs to be addressed. Stand still for a moment and you find yourself going backwards.
In McLaren’s case, it had become abundantly clear throughout 2022 that the gap that had been present between Lando Norris and Ricciardo for much of last season had not really closed this year.
With Ricciardo still unable to gain the confidence in the McLaren concept that was needed to extract the maximum performance from the car, he would more often than not finish within a couple of tenths of his team-mate.
If McLaren were fighting alone, with a buffer for the opposition, then this gap between the two might not be so alarming.
But when you’re stuck in a tight midfield fight, sometimes three tenths can be the difference between Q3 heroics and a Q1 exit. And you find yourself stuck in the lower sections of the grid on Sunday, then it’s incredibly difficult to move forward and get closer to the front.
Repeat this state of affairs too many times and you’ll end up with the kind of points gap McLaren has found between its two cars. It has not been lost on the Woking team management that Norris currently has 76 points, while Ricciardo has just 19.
It is among the biggest deficits between teammates on the grid and, for a team as ambitious as McLaren in getting back to the top, there were obviously clear concerns about the impact of repeating that tilt in 2023 if the grid of F1 was closed.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, in the drivers’ parade
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
While Ricciardo’s points contribution has now left him battling with Alpine for fourth place, the concern was that the 50-plus points missing next year could be two or three constructors’ championship places. And that means less money from commercial rights; less interest from sponsors and a drop in bonuses for McLaren staff.
Team principal Andreas Seidl doesn’t realize that the job of an F1 team is to have a pair of matched drivers to get the most out of their car, because that’s how everything is done its potential.
“The objective is obviously clear: for any team on the grid they want to have two drivers who are always in one position every race weekend to get the most out of the package they have,” he said.
“Of course, the situation we’re in now with Daniel wasn’t good with the struggles he had with our car. But at the same time, we had some shared challenges and shared responsibility for not making it work.
“It’s a long way from blaming Daniel for the positions we’re currently in in the Constructors’ Championship, for example.”
Ultimately, the problem with Ricciardo wasn’t that he didn’t have the skill and talent to be successful. It’s just that something didn’t sit well between him and the McLaren concept car.
The Australian spoke earlier this year that the relationship between driver and car is like that of dance partners – where they have to become one if it’s going to work. They are out of step, and it just doesn’t click.
Both McLaren and Ricciardo went to great lengths to try and figure out why things weren’t the same; but with little sign of progress 18 months into their relationship, there came a point where perhaps they both had to accept that there would never be an answer.
Seidl added: “In terms of performance I’ve said before, for a Formula 1 driver to achieve performance, he obviously has to be totally one with the car, and you remember all the comments Daniel made about his challenges.
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, Andreas Seidl, Team Principal, McLaren, on the grid
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“As I said before, not only did we manage together to make him feel as comfortable in the car as Lando, especially when it came to pushing the car to its absolute limit.
“We put in a lot of effort, a lot of commitment from the team, to see what we could do on the car side to help him.
“He also put in a lot of effort with sessions with engineers, simulation sessions as well, but we couldn’t unlock that percentage that we sometimes lacked compared to Lando. And unfortunately we were unable to resolve this situation.”
But while things ultimately didn’t work out between McLaren and Ricciardo, which came as a surprise to both and outside groups, the team has nothing but praise for the contribution it made that went far beyond this brilliant victory. in Monza last year.
“From Daniel and the lessons that have been learned from it, I think they will never stand still,” Seidl continued. “When I look back over those 18 months, it wasn’t like Daniel needed something completely different than Lando from the car. In fact, they were both pretty aligned in terms of the car’s weaknesses.
“I also want to make it clear, in the time we’ve spent together so far, we really appreciate everything he brought to the team with all his experience. I guess it also helped us take the next step as a team.
“He was always great even on the days he didn’t get us the car we deserved. He always stayed positive and helped me keep pushing the team forward.
“We have not forgotten, for example, the difficult start we had this year. And that was very important, it was very positive to see and that has not changed anything in terms of the respect that I personally have for him as well.
“Unfortunately, it’s a fact that we haven’t made it work together here at McLaren. And as I said before, at the end of the day it’s a team effort between the team and the driver and I guess it’s a shared responsibility not to – it will work, unfortunately”.
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Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images