McLaren team admits this could be Ricciardo's last season
May 28 - It is possible that Daniel Ricciardo will be shown the exit door at McLaren after the 2022 season.
In Monaco, there has been some confusion about the duration of the Australian's fixed contract, after he appeared to accidentally admit that the term ends this year.
"It's clear - I've got a contract until the end of '23," Ricciardo said before crashing in Monaco practice. "Covid messed me up so I just get confused with the years."
However, paddock rumblings suggest McLaren CEO Zak Brown is seriously considering replacing the 32-year-old for 2023.
"Paper is more patient than reality," former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher told Sky Deutschland.
"If it stays the way it is not, I don't see him at McLaren next year. The rumours and the statements from the team are getting louder.
"He's just too far away from his teammate."
Indeed, whilst not wanting to talk about the current contract, Brown revealed that certain "mechanisms" would allow McLaren to part with Ricciardo.
"We'll keep watching for now, not any single race in particular but we'll see how it develops and what Daniel himself wants to do next," the American said.
Ricciardo told Sport1 that he doesn't take any criticism from Brown "personally".
"The truth is yes - I haven't had a great time this year," said the former Red Bull and Renault driver. "So it's normal for people to look at me critically.
"Obviously I'd prefer that he says nice things about me, but on the other hand McLaren's expectations of me are clearly high, and that's actually a positive."
He admits his entire McLaren tenure so far has been "more difficult than ever".
"I didn't even have problems like this at HRT or Toro Rosso," said Ricciardo. "Even if I had a bad race, the consistency and speed were still there.
"So it's hard for me to understand and I rarely have a black and white answer as to why I couldn't find the three tenths that weekend.
"The important thing is that I stay clear-headed and don't lose my confidence. But I'm convinced that I'm not too old or have lost my skills or my drive.
"The fire is still burning, otherwise I wouldn't be here anymore."
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I'm confident he'll see out his contract stint, but if his contract got terminated prematurely, Gasly could be a replacement option in a certain scenario.
i think that a gasly, norris line up for mclaren does sound interesting.will gasly be given equal status is the big queation seeing that zak brown and nkrris have forged a father-son like relationship, similar to that of ron dennis and ayrton senna.
Agreed but more like the set up with Ron and Mika after his bad crash, gasly yes , but Zak wants an American, he has a couple on the books already maybe....!
Hard to dis Daniel but it's been an elephant in the room for a long time...
DRic's FP crash was put down to an engineering error, but he not showing the fire that we are used to. I don't get it. Too comfy with the $$$ that he has amassed?
RIC is an overrated driver. The Red Bull car made him look better than he is and enabled him to do late braking.He hasn't done that since leaving Red Bull where he ran away because Max would show him up. F1 journos boom him up because of his personality and he is good at talking himself up.
One good year in 2014 with 3 wins but they came when both Mercs struck trouble. Average driver who fooled Renault and McLaren into forking out big money. More fool them.
I think Riccardo has been set up to be ousted, Mclaren are struggling !
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