Why Mclaren Never Considered Sebastian Vettel Ahead of Daniel Ricciardo for 2021

Earlier this year, McLaren signed the Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo, for the year 2021. While featuring in a podcast, Zak Brown opened up on why the team opted for Ricciardo when the 4-time World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, was up for grabs. Zak believes that Ricciardo is a “great personality“.

In the podcast, Zak was asked why the team went after Ricciardo over Vettel. “I think Vettel is an obviously outstanding talent, 4-time world champion. But I think Daniel is a bigger personality,” Zak said.

“Actually, if you’re gonna compare the two, one has four world championships. The other has 7 Grand Prix wins. I think there’s more runway left in Daniel and he’s a great personality,” said the American.

“And I think he’ll fit really well with Lando [Norris] and within our team. So, with all due respect to Seb, Daniel would be selected before Seb, which is exactly what we did,” Zak said.

With most of the teams choosing not to go after Vettel, there was one team that looked entirely confident in giving Vettel one of its cars for the 2021 season, Racing Point/Aston Martin.

McLaren on the other side will have two incredible drivers in its lineup with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. To make things even better, the team will get its Power Unit from the Mercedes come 2021.

Can Sebastian Vettel beat the McLarens in his Aston Martin?

Sebastian Vettel will probably get a much better car for next season with Aston Martin. The team will have the upper hand over the likes of McLaren, considering the fact that Racing Point exploited a loophole in the FIA’s rules regarding the usage of tokens.

However, Zak Brown is not one to back down. Confident in his team’s ability, he said, “It feels tight. Seems to be getting tighter. But we think that it’ll be a step forward. It is effectively going to be the 2020 cars. So what we’ve seen this year is a lot of what next year will look like.

“While we get a Power Unit advantage, we believe in the change. But we’re also restricted,” feels Zak. “There’s a token system on how much development you can do and we’re having to use our tokens for the engine development.

“So, we’re gonna benefit from the engine change.” But Zak sounded worried that his team might fall back on the development of the chassis.

Their current rivals, Racing Point, are slated to cop free components from Mercedes come 2021, a prospect that sparked a lot of outrage in the paddock. However, the move was deemed ethical and legal by the FIA.