The opportunity to sign Daniel Ricciardo made letting go of Carlos Sainz easier for McLaren, CEO Zak Brown claims.
It was back in May when the first moves of the 2021 driver market were confirmed, with Sebastian Vettel announced as leaving Ferrari before the Spaniard was revealed as his replacement just two days later.
The planned nature of Sainz’s move to the Scuderia surprised some given McLaren had been quite adamant he would stay, this after an impressive first year at the Woking-based squad last year.
But with Ricciardo also already lined up at McLaren, as he was announced the same day as Sainz was by Ferrari, Brown revealed Carlos’ exit was essentially a blessing in disguise.
“We had the ability to stop him from going to another team, but you know we have always wanted Danny Ricciardo,” he said on the In the Fast Lane podcast produced by the promoters of the Australian Grand Prix.
“It was one of those where the stars aligned and Carlos had a desire to race for Ferrari, which is totally understandable, but we obviously would have only allowed that if we felt we could get someone of Daniel’s ability and someone that we wanted a couple of years ago.
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“So we said why don’t you go explore and we’ll explore and if you get the opportunity and we can get a seven-time Grand Prix winner then that’s going to work out well for all of us.
“I think we’ve got a great driver line-up and I think it’s only going to be stronger with Daniel and Lando [Norris].”
As Brown alluded to, this wasn’t the first time he and Ricciardo had spoken with the Perth native rejecting McLaren for Renault back in 2018, when Daniel was still at Red Bull.
“A couple of years ago we were coming off a horrific season, one of our worst in McLaren history and really all I could do at that point was a promise or make claims to Daniel on what my intentions were,” he explained.
“But at that point, it’s just words – ‘I’m going to get a great team principal, I’m going to get a great technical director, we’re going to get the resources we need’ … it was a lot of promises.
“Understandably he went all sounds good, but you are coming off one of the worst seasons in McLaren’s history and I think ultimately it didn’t get him over the line for those reasons.
“A year later, we have a very strong season, now I can say instead of saying I’m going to get a great team principal, I can say I got Andreas Seidl, who I think is making a huge difference in the team. I’m going to get a great technical director, I got one, James Key.
“(Ricciardo’s) a huge Andreas fan and I think that had a big part in his decision making progress as he says ‘Andreas is a monster’, and I think he means that in a good way.”
Because of the timing of the announcements, and with Vettel now confirmed at Aston Martin for next year, it has led to a scenario where Ferrari, Renault, McLaren and Racing Point are all having to work with drivers they know are leaving at the end of this season.
But when it is proposed to Brown that the three drivers could make their 2021 moves early, he actually opposes it because, for now, it benefits McLaren.
“We’re happy with our driver line-up this year,” he said. “We’re happy with everyone else’s driver line-up this year.
“I think we have two drivers that are doing an excellent job, and some other teams which have disruption in their garage.
“So I think I want to continue the harmonious relationship we have going on right now, and I think if we were to consider changing that, it would maybe only be to the benefit of other teams that are maybe a little bit more destabilized in the garage.”
