McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown believes there are similarities between the split with Honda F1 and the end of Daniel Ricciardo’s contract. This shows that the team has learned a lesson from its failure with Honda F1.
Daniel Ricciardo has been unable to match Lando Norris, aside from a victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, leaving McLaren before the planned end of his contract following a difficult two years of failing to live up to expectations. left the F1 team.
A mutual agreement to terminate the contract early will result in a penalty payment for Daniel Ricciardo who will not race for McLaren F1 in 2023.
As Daniel Ricciardo himself admitted, he exposed weaknesses in McLaren’s F1 machine. He struggled to adapt to two cars that were less suited to his driving style.
But McLaren F1 refuses to put all the blame on Daniel Ricciardo. Zak Brown says he knows he has to do a better job with his successor Oscar Piastri, citing his departure from Honda F1 following the 2017 season.
“We benefited from Daniel on the track and learned a lot regarding ourselves,” said Brown.
“I think the lack of results with Daniel’s car is a collective responsibility.”
“In a way, it’s like when we broke up with Honda and put Renault in the car. It was like, ‘Oh, it wasn’t just the power unit.'”
“We are trying to get better as a team and I think we can be a better two-car team. I think we have learned a lot from Daniel.”
One of the distinctly different elements of the split with Honda and the apparent end of Daniel Ricciardo’s contract is that McLaren is far more admiring of its predecessor partner this time around. It was like a quarrel with Honda F1, and words of criticism lined up.
Zak Bulllawn paid tribute to Daniel Ricciardo’s character during his most difficult times, saying he brought “a lot on and off the track” to the team.
But while it’s admirable to find the positives, the important thing is that McLaren F1 doesn’t repeat its negative mistakes with Honda F1, which they believed were perfect.
McLaren felt that Honda F1 was solely responsible for the team’s severe decline, but with a change of engine partners in 2018, McLaren discovered that the bodywork itself was in deep trouble. .
The problems McLaren finally realized in 2018 were quickly realized that they had serious limitations as they didn’t look inward for their problems in 2015-2017 and blamed Honda F1 for the failure of the partnership. There are things I mightn’t do.
This led to a thorough overhaul and major changes in management and senior engineers, ultimately accelerating the progress McLaren F1 has achieved in recent years.
As for Daniel Ricciardo, we recognize that McLaren F1 did not manage the situation well as a team. McLaren F1 can’t be blamed for lack of effort, but it might have been wrong in its chosen approach.
To some extent, Daniel Ricciardo’s restrictions were out of the team’s hands, but instead of assuming that fortunes automatically turn around with a new driver, McLaren F1 needs to figure out what went wrong.
An example of how McLaren F1 can do this is to see how they didn’t over-engineer Daniel Ricciardo and essentially confuse him by trying to fit his style into the car. to do
In a broader sense, McLaren simply needs to improve the design of its F1 car and develop something more balanced. That way you can get the performance out of the car without needing someone who is very adaptable or specifically tuned to the needs of the car.
McLaren’s taking responsibility for it suggests lessons have been learned from its wake from its rude break with Honda F1.
McLaren F1 is therefore unhappy with the allegations of scapegoating Daniel Ricciardo. McLaren knows that if Piastri comes in and struggles like his predecessor, he will have nowhere to hide and is going to great lengths to avoid it.
Category: F1 / mclaren / honda f1 / Daniel Ricardo
