McLaren Admits Owing an Apology to Daniel Ricciardo for the Unfortunate Jeddah F1 DNF

It was looking so good for Daniel Ricciardo until he retired from Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver was a passenger when his MCL 36 got stopped at the pit entry on lap 37. Daniel could not do anything as he reported a driveshaft failure to his team.

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl mentioned team owes Daniel an apology for his retirement. The Aussie driver has had a terrible start to his 2022 season after missing out on Pre-season testing in Bahrain because of Covid-19.

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The uncompetitive nature of McLaren this season has also not helped Ricciardo get off the mark.

McLaren team boss feels the team should give Daniel Ricciardo an apology

The German mentioned the team, did not give Daniel the material he deserves to drive at his best. The Aussie driver was running P11 and was competitive throughout the race when the problem occurred.

” It was something that occurred for the first time. We have to see. I can’t give an update here. And we have to apologize to Daniel because we didn’t give him the material that he deserves,” said Daniel.

“He had a slightly different strategy than the others after he got stuck in the first stint. And I think that strategy would have worked. He would have finished in the Lando [Norris] region,” said the McLaren team principal.

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On the other hand, it was a positive weekend for The Woking-based team as they scored the first points of the season. Lando Norris finished P7 to bring home 6 points for the team after a difficult start in Bahrain.

Ricciardo was running right behind him when he retired and could have also finished at the lower ends of the points, which would have been great news for the team. But it is positive that on a high-speed track like Jeddah, the team could fight in the midfield and be more competitive.

Daniel would like to break his duck of points at his home GP in Australia next week. This is the first time since 2019 the sport will race in the country after missing two previous interactions because of Covid.