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Lando Norris described his time working with Daniel Ricciardo as a “joy” while McLaren’s team principal made a telling admission amid news of the Australian’s impending exit.
McLaren confirmed on Thursday that Ricciardo will leave McLaren at the end of the season, a year early than his contract runs to, after both parties mutually agreed to it.
The 33-year-old, who joined in 2021, said he will leave “proud of the effort and work I gave McLaren.”
ANALYSIS: The biggest reason Ricciardo’s McLaren experiment ended in disaster
Ricciardo has eight career wins, including one for McLaren last year — the Italian Grand Prix. He has been largely played second fiddle to team-mate Lando Norris. The English driver has 76 points compared to Ricciardo’s 19.
Norris finished sixth in last year’s championship on 160 points with Ricciardo eighth on 115 points.
Reacting to the news on Twitter, Norris vowed to have a “mega next few months” with his Australian teammate.
“What a ride Daniel Ricciardo,” Norris tweeted.
“From that moment in Monza, to the laughs we’ve had out of the car, it’s been a joy working with you these last two years. Whatever’s next I wish you all the best, let’s have a mega next few months.”
Elsewhere, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl admitted that he would share part of the blame for Ricciardo’s woes.
“I think we have both commented many times about challenges we had on Daniel’s side of the garage regarding extracting the same performance the car as on Lando’s side,” he told reporters.
“Daniel has said many times that he just never felt fully comfortable in our car, especially when it was about pushing the car to the absolute limit. That was, in the end, causing the lap time difference to Lando.
“At the same time, we have technology that tells us Lando is an outstanding driver, so he was up against one of the best ones in the paddock. This in the end led us to the decision. He just didn’t get it to work in the end.
“For a driver being able to extract the performance from the car is a team effort between the driver and the team, so I just want to be clear as well that I fully take the responsibility of being in charge of the team that couldn’t find the magic in order to find these percentages that we were seeing from time to time.
“That’s why at the end we came to the conclusion that we go our separate ways next year.
“In the end it’s a team effort between the team and the driver and that’s how I also see it. It’s a shared responsibility for also not getting it to work.”
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