Daniel Ricciardo has “generally” not met the performance expectations of both himself and McLaren, CEO Zak Brown admits
The Australian joined from Renault at the start of last year but has been largely dominated by teammate Lando Norris, who has outscored Ricciardo 199 points to 126.
A key reason for Ricciardo’s problems has been curtailed pre-seasons that have put him on the back foot, with only a day-and-a-half of running before the first race both this year and last.
Even so, after what the 31-year-old himself dubbed a “sad race” in Spain, Brown conceded the former Red Bull driver hadn’t quite lived up to the billing.
“Lando definitely has an edge,” he told Sky Sports. “We would obviously like to see Daniel much closer to Lando and have a good inter-team battle.
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“Daniel is just not comfortable yet with the car, we’re trying everything we can. Again it was a disappointing weekend.
“Short of Monza [where Ricciardo led a McLaren 1-2 in 2021] and a few races, it’s generally not kind of met his or our expectations, as far as what we were expecting.
“And I think all you can do is keep working hard as a team, keep communications going, keep pushing and hope that whatever is not kind of clicking at the moment clicks shortly.”
The McLaren chief though did put another spin on it, suggesting it wasn’t Ricciardo who was lacklustre but rather Norris performing at a very high level.
“I think it also kind of points to how good Lando is,” he added.
“When you look at the gap between Charles and Carlos [at Ferrari], the gap between Max and Sergio [at Red Bull], there are gaps between teammates and I think Lando is one of the best drivers in the world at the moment.
“I think it’s also kind of a compliment to how good Lando is when you see the gap that exists.”
Brown’s comments though came at an intriguing time when McLaren is openly talking up two current IndyCar stars in Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta as potential future F1 drivers.
However, team boss Andreas Seidl is keeping the faith in Ricciardo.
“We have a contract in place with Daniel until the end of next year, plus options, which means we are both in a very good place. We want to make this journey we are on together a very successful one,” Seidl told The Age.
“Daniel has shown in the past that with the right car and the right team he can pull off race wins, so there is no reason why he should not be able to fight for World titles if we deliver from our side.”