While Ricciardo has rarely been able to show his true potential at McLaren, having struggled to get past the concept of their car, the team clearly cannot blame him entirely for the situation. In fact, team principal Andreas Seidl says that the responsibility for how things turned out has to be shared between both the team and the driver, because they could never find the right solution. “In the end we have to recognize that we didn’t manage to work together despite the commitment that was there from Daniel’s side, from the team’s side and despite the effort that we all put in,” he said. “Obviously it’s not the result we weren’t looking for, but at the same time it’s important now to turn our focus to the remaining nine games together and give it our all again as a team. “Daniel will do the same and try to finish our relationship on a high, which would be important because we are in a close battle with the Alpine cars. We definitely want to get back to P4 in the constructors’ championship.” Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36, leaving the garage Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images While Ricciardo has shown occasional signs of promise during his 18 months with the team, most notably his victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, he still trails teammate Lando Norris slightly in terms of pace. And while the team could have given Ricciardo more time to see what he could do, Seidl says the outfit tried their best to help him. “I think it’s very important to state that from my point of view, and I think from the team’s point of view, there was a huge commitment and a lot of effort was put into doing this,” Seidl added. “The same thing happened on Daniel’s side. “The most important thing for me is that we always work together with our colleagues and also with the race drivers. We have an open and honest and transparent dialogue internally with each other, which we always have. I think that’s what happened there. “We tried everything we could from both sides. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it work, which is obviously my responsibility being the team leader. That’s how I see it.” Read also: McLaren chief executive Zak Brown admitted the team never expected such difficulties with Ricciardo, having lured him away from Renault at the end of the 2020 season. “I think it’s fair to say we’re all surprised it didn’t deliver more results and more Monza-like performance,” he said. “Obviously he’s got a fantastic CV and he comes to us as a seven-time grand prix winner and leaves us as an eight-time grand prix winner with nine races to go. “Who knows what will happen later this year. Hopefully he will find his form in a new environment.”
