“We weren’t getting the results,” Zak Brown opens up on ‘hated’ situation of Daniel Ricciardo’s exit from McLaren

“We weren’t getting the results,” Zak Brown opens up on ‘hated’ situation of Daniel Ricciardo’s exit from McLaren

Daniel Ricciardo with McLaren CEO Zak Brown

Daniel Ricciardo has suffered ever since he left Red Bull in 2018. The move to Renault was a partial success considering the position he got his car from and where he managed to take it at the end of his tenure. But then Daniel decided to move away from Renault to McLaren, which was a hotly anticipated prospect.

Suffice to say, Daniel Ricciardo’s move to McLaren has not worked out, at all. Zak Brown, the CEO, understands and accepts the above statement as much as the driver himself. Brown was a big fan of the Australian and wanted to sign him ahead of the decision of him to leave Red Bull which never happened. However, he managed to get the driver at his team after two years but that didn’t end very well.

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Zak Brown cited the reason for parting ways with Ricciardo as a lack of results: “Ultimately we weren’t getting the results that we needed and we’re a year-and-a-half into this. 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.”

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Zak Brown on a chance for future collaboration with Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo

Zak Brown as mentioned earlier is a big Daniel Ricciardo fan and he wanted him to stay in the McLaren group for his future endeavours. But Ricciardo still decided to deny the CEO’s option and try to stay in Formula 1, but there hasn’t been a lot of visible progress on that front. Brown did try to pursue the Australian to stay at McLaren for either IndyCar or Formula E.

Brown said that he hated that the move did not work out: “I’ve hated it. I tried to get Daniel before he went to Renault, so this was years in the making. I’m a huge Daniel fan. I’m still a huge Daniel fan and that’ll never change.”

He further added that he would love to keep the Australian at the team (in a different capacity): “I asked him if he wanted to drive for us in the IndyCar or Formula E … I’d love to keep Daniel in the family but he’s still very focused on Formula One, which I get, it’s the pinnacle of motorsports. I’d love to race with him again.”

Daniel Ricciardo has brutally lost out to his teammate in the same machinery after everyone’s expectations for him to finally step up this season. Lando Norris leads the best of the rest pack, while Daniel Ricciardo is a lowly 12th, behind Sebastian Vettel. The Australian is currently 72 points behind his teammate.