Ricardo's McLaren career appears to be coming to an end with the team eager to replace him with Oscar Piastre following his struggles for speed and consistency the australian gambled by leaving renault for the start of the 2021 season but things did not go as planned despite winning at monza.
Last year he has struggled to find any real form and has found it difficult to adapt to McLaren's tricky to drive cars when compared to Norris his result paints a bleak picture the brit has 70 points this season and has impressed even when the team has struggled but Ricardo is 51 points behind his teammate and has also been regularly outperformed in qualifying Norris has frequently been asked about the australian's plight and he has previously attempted to offer solace such as when he explained how difficult the mcl36 is to drive and when asked if he has been playing mind games with the former red bull star.
He recently responded defensively in what way what mind games can i play no it's the opposite I'm trying to help him as much as I can it's for the benefit of us as a team to try and beat Alpine at the end of the day he sees everything i see in terms of data and everything I'm offering more help than I normally would let's say if you are fighting for a world championship I'm saying more things than I would do just because that's what we need for the team that's what i want for the team at the minute no it's the opposite of mind games whatever that is mind soothing Ricardo has a contract with McLaren until the end of 2023 but it appears unlikely that he will stay for that long the team wants to replace him with Oscar Piastre although Alpine believes they have a valid contract to make the f2 driver their driver next season few expected things to turn out this way Ricardo's struggles last season were attributed to adjusting to a new car philosophy which were eventually ironed out leading to his Monza victory season two with McLaren should have cured it despite this the struggles not only continued but intensified so why has Ricardo had such difficulty with McLaren's formula one cars over the last two years the key point to remember is that while the 2022 regulations heralded a technological overhaul for f1 they did not eliminate many of the characteristics of the McLaren car that made it so difficult to drive last year the mcl36 like the mcl 35m excels in high-speed corners but struggles more in medium-speed
Ones McLaren technical director James key stated at the end of last year that the company wanted to attack the weaknesses and account for them with a clean slate ensuring that there were no legacy built-in behaviours in a car like that however both Ricardo and Norris encountered the same difficulties with the new car in an interview ahead of the summer break Ricardo explained the regulations make the car feel different but the dna of the car is still very similar some of the things from last year which I struggled with they are still in this car it's something.
I think we're starting to understand better what it is but obviously I tried to describe it but to really understand is it aero is it geometry like do you know what i mean we are starting to understand better what it is and Lando also does complain about it i think he's just used to it Norris however has also found it difficult to get to grips with the mcl36 at times forcing him to adjust his driving style I don't think you can probably in any way say the car is made around me from what I want from the car it's like the opposite of what it's giving me at the minute and yeah I would say the car I have now is completely not what i want for my driving style and it's very unsuited for me it's not a bad thing it's just that is what it is and you have to adapt to it that's why I feel like I've done a reasonable job this year adapting to something that is not what I want or like that's one of the improvements I've made over the last few years.
It highlights the distinction between Norris and Ricardo this year while Norris was able to adjust and work around the mcl 36's characteristics Ricardo has struggled to do so he's always been a driver who thrived on total trust in the car allowing him to be aggressive and throw it around on dive up the inside of his competitors McLarens of the last two years have not given him the opportunity to do so the recent weekend at the Hungara ring was another example of his difficult season as McLaren used the same strategy for both drivers with lando Norris finishing seventh after starting fourth and the Australian finishing 15th from ninth team principal Andrea Seidel admitted that the team needed to understand what went wrong after reassessing the dramatic differences between his two drivers we scored important points obviously for our battle in the constructors championship battle with Alpine but of course we need to understand why on Daniel's side with exactly the same strategy we were falling off so much with the hard tires in the final stint which put Daniel out of the points that's what we need to analyze together with Daniel nonetheless it appears that plans are already in place to replace Ricardo with Oscar Piastre but there is one problem according to reports Ricardo is the only party with the authority to terminate his contract putting McLaren in a difficult position according to the report Ricardo has asked for a fee of more than 12 million pounds to leave the team if both parties reach an agreement the final fee is expected to be lower but Ricardo will still earn millions from stepping aside to allow Piastre to race alongside lando Norris and even if he does end up leaving the woking outfit his f1 future is likely to be secure with several teams eager to snap him up in recent weeks at least four teams have reportedly made contact with the australian to assert his intentions.
Alpine is believed to be one of them and they would consider bringing Ricardo back into the fold if they lost Piastre to McLaren ottmar zaffnauer Alpine team principal discussed the possibility i mean if you look at fernando for example he comes and goes and i think that happens to other drivers too and i don't think that's an issue at all i think what we need to focus on is like i say the plans that we have for our next eight or nine races we've got to make sure that we complement the plan with the best driver that we can and there are some options out there for us and we put the best driver in next to esteban so that we can move forwards towards what we've been planning as for ps3 his case is set to go to court with both teams confident that they have a valid contract with the racer if alpene can demonstrate that they have the right to promote their reserve to a race seat next year McLaren may be on the hook for another sizeable payout if Piastre decides to breach the agreement Alpine sees Ricardo as the obvious replacement for Piastre and the two have a history it was a shock comparable to Fernando Alonso's move to Aston Martin when Ricardo turned down a deal to stay at race-winning red bull to lead the Renault project for 2019. it was no secret that he was in talks with Renault but he was expected to stay at Redbull Renault scored a huge victory it was on its way to finishing fourth in the constructors championship won the midfield battle and had serious hopes of closing the gap to the top three the following year it had a driver in Ricardo who was in his fifth season with a top team and had seven wins under his belt Renault was willing to spend a lot of money a guaranteed 25 million dollars per year with some huge if fanciful bonuses to get a bankable commodity.
However driver values can rise as well as fall Ricardo has been a busted flush at McLaren he has a contract for next year and he controls the brake clause so after struggling since joining the team in 21 the question is whether he believes a change of team will bring back the old Ricardo Alpine would undoubtedly get a perfectly serviceable driver if it signed Ricardo he's doing okay at McLaren and even in his weakened state he's a reliable driver but that is not what Alpine wants at least according to Ottmar Zaffnauer in the short term we have to replace Fernando with the absolute best driver but what we mustn't forget is that we have a 100 race plan to start winning races and vying for a championship where over 10 races into that so we have got 80 some races to do that so the choice for us has to be one that complements that goal so that driver that sits next to Esteban Ocon has to be the best choice for us that complements and helps us attain that goal the requirements are unambiguous Ricardo could have been the best driver available in the past but whether or not it is still true today is a gamble will Alpine be willing to take that risk it's still unclear on paper Ricardo remains the best of a limited number of options if Alpine's first choice fails to materialize however signing him would rely on the Australian gaining his brilliant form which is far from guaranteed but what do you think will Daniel Ricardo make the decision to give McLaren what they want and leave the team if that's the case where will he go and is Alpine willing to take the risk of signing him?
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