Summary | Complete timeline of Ricciardo at McLaren

For Daniel Ricciardo, the adventure at McLaren unfortunately turns out to be short-lived. After only two years, the Australian will leave the Woking team early. Nevertheless, a lot has happened during this period. From his very surprising announcement at the team, to his special win at Monza and recently the rumours surrounding a possible departure. GPblog summarises his period with the team so far in this article.

Announcement:

After Carlos Sainz announced his switch from McLaren to Ferrari, a seat became available. After two years at Renault, it was McLaren who announced the arrival of the Australian in a big way and who announced a multi-year deal until 2023. Besides Lando Norris, McLaren would have the 'strongest duo on the grid'.

First race weekend for McLaren:

After the first qualifying session for McLaren, Ricciardo was very happy with the result. He started the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2021 from sixth place, ahead of his teammate Norris. The new McLaren driver started the race in sixth place and finished the race in seventh and looked back satisfied, but also saw room for improvement although the car obviously took a lot of getting used to.

Winning in Monza:

A highlight for Ricciardo and one that he looks back on happily despite his departure is his win at Monza. At the Italian Grand Prix the Australian pulled off a spectacular victory. Lando Norris even made it a one-two for McLaren, after which Zak Brown got a tattoo to commemorate the happy moment. The Monza race, however, will mainly be remembered as the one in which title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton crashed into each other off the track. Nevertheless, Ricciardo's win at the Italian circuit will be the last for McLaren for the time being. The Perth driver's win will also go down in the books as the Woking-based team's first win since 2012.

After the weekend, the always smiling driver could not quite believe it and said he was still on a cloud.

A disappointing start to the 2022 season:

Although the start was tough with disappointing results, the Perth driver managed to recover. Victory at the Italian Grand Prix provided a boost and he was determined to build on McLaren's strong second half of the season. Yet Ricciardo had a disappointing start to the season due to a coronavirus infection just before the three-day test session in Bahrain. It was teammate Norris who got to do a lot of hours in the brand new car. Subsequently, Ricciardo achieved fourteenth place in Bahrain, a DNF in Saudi Arabia and eighteenth place during the GP of Emilia-Romagna. At the new Miami circuit the Australian finished thirteenth. He then finished five of eight races outside the points.

All in all, a disappointing first half of the season so far. Of the 95 points that the McLaren team has scored so far, Ricciardo only managed to put 19 in his own pocket and often had to stand alongside his stronger teammate Norris.

Zak Brown on performance clause:

McLaren chief Zak Brown was critical of Ricciardo's performance in May. The highly paid Australian did - despite the surprising victory at Monza last year - not yet meet the expectations at McLaren. The contract between McLaren and Ricciardo still runs until the end of 2023. That is why Brown said that the team and the driver are doing everything possible to improve his performance. But, Brown said, otherwise there is also 'a mechanism' to break the deal. Following Brown's comments, it was thought that McLaren could use some sort of performance clause to possibly sideline Ricciardo. Subsequently, several sources reported that this is not the case and the option lies with Ricciardo himself. He also clarified this on 13 July on social media:

Piastri-drama:

Alpine previously announced that Oscar Piastri will replace Fernando Alonso at that team next year, but the Australian denied this on his social media. Piastri, who took the title in both Formula 3 and Formula 2 in his debut year, stressed that he has no contract with Alpine for 2023. It reinforced long-standing rumours that he will debut in Formula 1 at McLaren. As a result, there is a need to free up space and a departure of the disappointing Ricciardo was already in the pipeline.

Confirmation:

After a summer break that was full of speculation and rumours, the long-awaited news has finally come out. After this season the cooperation between Ricciardo and the McLaren team will come to an end. An announcement about Piastri joining the team from Woking might not be long in coming.