Zak Brown Confesses to His Sole Mistake in Daniel Ricciardo-McLaren Debacle and Takes Away $21 Million Lesson With It

The saga of Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren has finally come to an end as we head into a race weekend. F1 fans have official announcements from both parties regarding the mutual contract termination (with a reported $21 million payout) as well. They can learn a lot from the saga, especially about the uncertainties of life in F1.

Following Ricciardo’s announcement, friends, colleagues and a host of F1 entities shared their disappointment and wished him luck. The world of Twitter did not shy away either, with reactions pouring in from all directions regarding the situation. Even the top brass at McLaren shared their disappointment at how everything turned out.

However, the McLaren bosses cannot be blamed for their decision. CEO Zak Brown is responsible for the entire team and not just one driver. His comments echo the team-first mentality when asked to reflect on the whole situation with Daniel Ricciardo.

Brown explained, “I think my one learning there would really just be contractual. I don’t think there’s anything we could have done differently for him as a driver.”

“I think what I’ll do different next time is maybe have some more performance protection for us and not just assume that a great driver is always going to always be great.”

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Formula 1, as a sport, is cutthroat and that mentality is not limited to the drivers. The teams need to be ruthless as well to get ahead of the competition. Ricciardo’s inconsistency was hampering McLaren‘s chances for a third or fourth spot in the constructors’ championship.

‘Honey Badger‘ currently sits 12th in the driver’s standings (19 points) i.e. a whopping 57 points behind his teammate.

Every spot in the constructors translates to millions in prize money. So McLaren’s decision, even though harsh, is understandable. However, there’s still something that even Zak Brown does not understand.

Zak Brown still does not understand what went wrong with Daniel Ricciardo

Discussing the Australian further, Brown spoke about the mysterious aspect of why Daniel Ricciardo could not perform at McLaren.

Regarded as F1 elite, ‘Honey Badger‘ joined Mclaren having won seven races. However, apart from the win at Monza in 2021, his time at the Woking outfit wasn’t remarkable.

Per Zak Brown, the team gave Daniel Ricciardo the benefit of the doubt in year one, but year two was similar with a totally different car. He revealed, “We got to the point where our only strategy was hope. And I think hope is not a great strategy. So it’s a great mystery.”

The unfortunate relationship has ended, but his final chapter at McLaren is yet to be written. Hopefully, Daniel Ricciardo can redeem his name in this final chapter to give himself a better footing ahead of 2023.

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