DANIEL RICCIARDO RELEASES STATEMENT OF INTENT ON F1 FUTURE
By Auto Action
Date posted: July 14, 2022
Daniel Ricciardo has released a public statement amidst the torrent of speculation surrounding his future with McLaren and, his future in Formula 1 as a whole.
The affable Australian has been under pressure for much of the season following a string of underwhelming performances, and has lacked competitive pace in his MCL36.
The pressure cooker that comes part-and-parcel with being in F1, has seen the heat turned up on ‘The Honey Badger’ ever since Zak Brown’s (McLaren Racing CEO) comments on Sky Sports’ last May.
“Short of Ricciardo’s victory at Monza and few races. It’s generally not met his or our expectations, as what we were expecting,” said Brown on Sky Sports’ Any Driven Monday.
And despite McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl publicly apologising several times for letting Ricciardo down with the cars performance issues, the cooker has intensified as McLaren aren’t anywhere near where they thought they’d be in 2022.
Couple this with young IndyCar star, Colton Herta, who tested last years MCL35M in Portugal recently, Ricciardo felt the drive to release a statement regarding his future over his Twitter platform.
“There have been a lot of rumours around my future in Formula 1, but I want you to hear it from me. I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and am not walking away from the sport. Appreciate it hasn’t always been easy, but who wants easy! I’m working my ass off with the team to make improvements and get the car right and back to the front where it belongs. I still want this more than ever. See you in Le Castellet. Daniel.”
The defiant statement comes after Ricciardo placed P9 in Austria last weekend, finishing behind team mate Lando Norris, P7.
After 11 races, the universally liked Australian sits 11th in the standings on 17 points, well below Norris who sits seventh on 64 points.
