McLaren CEO Zak Brown says he’s been unfairly accused of mistreating Daniel Ricciardo in his team’s early split with the Australian.
Ricciardo joined McLaren on a three-year deal in 2021 as one of Formula 1’s most highly rated drivers but was sacked in August this year after 18 months of underperformance.
He will be replaced by compatriot Oscar Piastri from next season.
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The driver change was the central narrative of an unexpectedly messy silly season, with McLaren forced to defend snatching Piastri from the Alpine junior academy in a rare sitting of the FIA Contract Recognition Board.
The governing body found unanimously in McLaren’s favour, but the hearing revealed Piastri had been contracted to the team on 4 July, around a month before Ricciardo was told he would be axed.
Ricciardo later admitted he wasn’t aware the team had double-booked his seat when it initiated negotiations to buy him out of the last year of his contract, although he admitted that his non-performance had been a regular topic of discussion with the team for many months beforehand.
The revelation put off-side many Ricciardo fans, who accused McLaren of dishonest dealing, with Brown coming in for particular criticism.
Speaking in an interview on the team’s YouTube channel, Brown said the criticism was misinformed and insisted he had dealt with Ricciardo fairly.
“I think the challenging part is being judged by people that aren’t really close to it,” he said.
“I know what really happened. I know the relationship that I really have with Daniel and his manager and how transparent it was and how collaborative it was. It wasn’t easy on anyone, but it wasn’t what a lot of people made it out to be.
“That’s frustrating because you kind of unfairly get accused of certain actions [when] you know and he knows and those that are close it know that’s actually not what happened.
“Everyone has an opinion, and that’s fine. That’s sport. I think you can’t be in sport and not have a thick skin.
“The fans in the grandstand and the media are going to have their views, and you just need to be grounded.
“We’re in a high-profile sport, and what makes our sport great are fans that have opinions.
“In today’s day and age unfortunately I think we’re seeing a lot of people that overstep what’s an appropriate comment, but that’s the world we live in.
“I think as long as those that are close to us know what really happened, you just kind of roll with the punches.”
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Brown has been a long-term Ricciardo fan and attempted to sign him in 2018 when the Australian made the shock decision to leave Red Bull Racing. The American CEO said dealing with the collapse of what should have been fairytale partnership was personally difficult.
“It’s been a very tough year, and it’s personal — this is personal — specifically [with] Daniel, who’s been tremendous to work with and gave us our first win [since 2012],” he said. “We had a lot of fun together and we had a lot of frustration together that it didn’t work.
“We all love Daniel. He’s such a great spirit in the garage and on the radio and at the [McLaren Technology Centre].
“But sometimes things don’t work out, and it’s kind of a great mystery, because he definitely has the talent. He showed us that in Monza — he’s won eight grands prix — [and] that’s not because everyone got wiped out in turn 1 in Monza; he took the lead and he was gone.
“[It was] frustrating for all of us.”
But Brown said the two parties separated on good terms.
“The memory of Monza is to date my favourite memory of my 30 years in motorsports, and I’ve got to thank Daniel for that,” he said.
“I very much hope to see him on the grid again in Formula 1, which is his desire, and the door remains open for him to be in some McLaren in the future if the stars aligned. I’d love to go racing with him again.”
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Turning his attention to next year, Brown said he had no doubt that Oscar Piastri could impress in his long-awaited debut season, noting the rare achievement of back-to-back-to-back junior titles in Formula Renault Eurocup, Formula 3 and Formula 2 marked out the Melburnian as a special talent.
“We think Oscar’s going to be a sensational racing driver,” he said. “If you look at his career to date, he’s won a lot of championships in his first year, which already tells you a driver’s special. He’s got a great mental approach to the sport.
“And now that we feel that Lando has a lot of experience, we feel like we’ve got a great blend of experience and youth. Our experience just also happens to have youth.
“I think we sit here very excited with the potential of our driver line up of Lando and Oscar for the foreseeable future.”