Daniel Ricciardo has indicated his Formula 1 plans for 2023 are now “in place”.
After agreeing to part ways with McLaren during the summer, the Australian has already made it clear he won’t be racing next year as he needs the break to “reset”.
But Ricciardo has been linked to third driver roles at both Mercedes and his former team Red Bull, with his next move aimed at something bigger in the future.
“You will see me around,” he said via Formula1.com in Austin on Thursday. “It’s going to look different for me, but there is still very much still a plan in place.
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“It’s not that I am checking out and saying ‘see you later’, it’s far from that. I’m just putting in a plan to honestly try to get me back to the front of the grid and win races and do all the stuff I know I can do.”
Ahead of this weekend’s US Grand Prix, McLaren CEO Zak Brown opened up on the decision to oust Ricciardo from his seat for 2023.
“Ultimately, we weren’t getting the results we needed and we were a year-and-a-half into this,” he told Fox Sports Australia.
“We’ve all tried extremely hard. We love Daniel, he’s great to work with and continues to be great to work with. But we are in the results business and the results weren’t coming and we felt we tried everything.
“We don’t really know why it didn’t click, it’s kind of nobody’s fault. We gave it our best, he gave it his best…we just kind of ran out of things to try. Sometimes athletes go into slumps or need a change of environment.”
The American also acknowledged his personal admiration for Ricciardo made his decision very difficult.
“I’m a huge Daniel fan. I’m still a huge Daniel fan and that will never change,” Brown explained.
“I asked him if he wanted to drive for us in IndyCar or Formula E… I’d love to keep Daniel in the family but he’s still very focused on Formula 1 – which I get, it’s the pinnacle of motorsport. I’d love to race with him again.
“It’s probably the toughest thing I’ve had in my time in motorsports. It wasn’t pleasant, not fun,” added the McLaren chief
“But my job, along with Andreas [Seidl, McLaren F1 team boss], is to make the tough decisions and because we didn’t really see progress happening, it was like ‘well, I think we just need to make a change for both of our sakes and hopefully get him in the situation where he can be competitive again and in an F1 car wherever he ends up racing’, but (it’s been) a huge disappointment.”