After Sacking Daniel Ricciardo, “Huge Fan” Zak Brown Reveals He Tried Poaching Him During His Red Bull F1 Days

As Daniel Ricciardo is all set to leave McLaren F1 at the end of this season, McLaren CEO reveals a new story surrounding the Australian driver. Prior to his Renault move in 2019, Zak Brown wanted to get the Honey Badger to McLaren from Red Bull. Brown opened up on this further.

Zak Brown has always been a Daniel Ricciardo fan, as he shared it himself. In an interview with Kayo Sports, Brown reported, “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.”

Ricciardo made his shocking Red Bull exit to sign for Renault (now Alpine). After some good years at Red Bull, the Australian driver made the move to drive alongside Esteban Ocon. However, after spending two years there, Ricciardo finally made his move to McLaren, signing a three-year deal.

READ MORE: Zak Brown Denies Daniel Ricciardo’s Claim That He Wasn’t in the Loop With Controversial Oscar Piastri Deal

Despite high expectations around him, Ricciardo failed short of fulfilling them. Apart from the win in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix in Monza where both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton took out each other.

It was tough to let Daniel Ricciardo go, shares Zak Brown

Daniel Ricciardo has always been a fan favorite. Even though he was underperforming at McLaren, his popularity didn’t get affected by that. A very popular figure in the Papaya team and F1 in general, it was hard to bid goodbye to the man from Land Down Under.

Talking about this, Brown further asserted, “Ultimately we weren’t getting the results that we needed and we’re a year-and-a-half into this. We’ve all tried extremely hard, we love Daniel, he’s great to work with and continues to be great to work with.”

“But we’re 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”, concluded the 50-year-old executive.

WATCH THIS STORY: Struggling ‘Honey Badger’ Daniel Ricciardo Once Dominated the Streets of Azerbaijan in Glorious 2017

As McLaren says goodbye to Ricciardo, they signed his fellow countryman Oscar Piastri for the 2023 season to drive alongside Lando Norris. It’ll be interesting to see how the former F2 champion fares in Ricciardo’s seat next season amid high expectations.