F1 legend's damning statement on Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren future
Former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve has brazenly claimed Daniel Ricciardo's time at McLaren is done after the season following some comments from CEO Zak Brown.
Ricciardo suffered yet another disaster at the Monaco GP when he finished 13th and outside of the points.
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This was compounded after crashing in qualifying and starting back at 14th on the grid in a race famously hard for overtaking.
Teammate Lando Norris has garnered 48 of McLaren's 59 points in 2022 in a season rapidly slipping away from the Australian.
And McLaren CEO Brown's comments after the race raised eyebrows on Ricciardo's future.
The McLaren boss said they weren't thrilled with Ricciardo's performances and hinted at his contract, which might have a get-out clause in place if results don't follow.
And now, 1997 world champion Villeneuve has claimed Ricciardo is all but done at McLaren after Brown's comments.
Speaking on Formule 1 website, Villeneuve said Ricciardo is just costing McLaren money after his high-profile switch.
"Daniel Ricciardo’s time at McLaren is over," Villeneuve
"CEO Zak Brown is now saying that there are clauses in his contract, and that means that a decision has almost been made.
"He doesn’t bring in any points and he doesn’t have the speed the team needs to develop the car. So he’s just costing them money."
Villeneuve said it was a 'harsh reality', but claimed it was for the benefit of the team to bring in a new driver to compete for points.
Daniel Ricciardo's struggles with the McLaren car
While McLaren haven't had to deal with the porpoising issue with their aerodynamics that many other teams have, Ricciardo has nonetheless struggled to extract the same amount of pace from the McLaren car Norris has.
After the Spanish GP race, Ricciardo appeared at a loss as to how he was losing so much pace in comparison to his young teammate.
“It’s one of those races that it was so slow that you kind of, nearly sounds bad to say, but you hope that something was wrong,” Ricciardo said.
“You hope that we find something that is like, ‘Oh, that’s why’, because probably more concerning if we don’t.
“It wasn’t like a tenth or two tenths (of a second) off. It felt like over a second at times.
“I don’t know that for a fact but I certainly saw the cars pass me and pull away very quickly.”
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