Photo: McLarenF1 / Twitter
There is something really strange about this whole Daniel Ricciardo situation at McLaren. The Aussie driver has been outperformed convincingly by his teammate, Lando Norris, despite having way more experience in Formula 1 than the latter.
During the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, Ricciardo finally responded to claims made by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who clearly stated that the former Red Bull and Renault driver has yet to live up to expectations.
“Daniel is just not comfortable yet with the car. We’re trying everything we can. Short of [Ricciardo’s win at] Monza and a few races, it’s generally not 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 moments, clicks here shortly,” said Brown during an interview last month.
When asked about his team principal’s comments, Ricciardo had this to say: “It’s not false – it's pretty true. Well firstly, comments I don’t take personally. My skin is tanned, beautiful, and also thick! But it hasn’t [met our expectations].”
The Australian went on to say that nobody is harder on him than himself and that he still believes he belongs at the front of the grid, instead of racing around in 10th or 12th place.
“I think there’s still more that I'd like to be getting out of [the car], which sometimes I can see and sometimes is less clear. I think we've also had a few things that have not gone, let's say, our way and have interrupted some of the sessions, so it's a combination of a few things,” he added.
If we were to be cynical about it, we could say that since leaving Red Bull, Ricciardo has failed to live up to any expectations, be it for McLaren or Renault. Perhaps he’s simply not that good at adapting his driving style to suit any type of car, unlike his teammate.
“Daniel is just not comfortable yet with the car. We’re trying everything we can. Short of [Ricciardo’s win at] Monza and a few races, it’s generally not 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 moments, clicks here shortly,” said Brown during an interview last month.
When asked about his team principal’s comments, Ricciardo had this to say: “It’s not false – it's pretty true. Well firstly, comments I don’t take personally. My skin is tanned, beautiful, and also thick! But it hasn’t [met our expectations].”
The Australian went on to say that nobody is harder on him than himself and that he still believes he belongs at the front of the grid, instead of racing around in 10th or 12th place.
“I think there’s still more that I'd like to be getting out of [the car], which sometimes I can see and sometimes is less clear. I think we've also had a few things that have not gone, let's say, our way and have interrupted some of the sessions, so it's a combination of a few things,” he added.
If we were to be cynical about it, we could say that since leaving Red Bull, Ricciardo has failed to live up to any expectations, be it for McLaren or Renault. Perhaps he’s simply not that good at adapting his driving style to suit any type of car, unlike his teammate.
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