McLaren CEO, Zak Brown is amazed that no F1 team approached Daniel Ricciardo when he announced he was leaving the Woking-based squad in the summer.
Ricciardo had an underwhelming 2022 by his high standards, finishing in the points in only four races during the first half of the season, compared to his teammate Lando Norris who finished in the points nine times in the same period including a podium finish at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Ricciardo was snapped by his former team Red Bull but only as reserve driver behind reigning world champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
The Australian was part of the Red Bull system for six years, first racing for the junior team Toro Rosso from 2012 to 2013 before driving for the senior team between 2014 and 2018.
He left for Renault in 2018 and after two seasons moved to McLaren.
Following the announcement of his reserve role at Red Bull, McLaren boss Brown ponders why the 33-year-old was not considered by other constructors when there were vacancies in the driver market.
“I’m surprised some of the other teams that looked for drivers didn’t select him. But also I think there were certain teams he wasn’t interested in driving for. So maybe they would have selected him,” Brown said as per Autosport.
“But he clearly wants to stay in the game. He won Monza last year; eight races is a lot of races to win. So it’s in there, we just weren’t able to unlock it. And hopefully in another environment, something will unlock it, because I think we’d like to see Daniel on the grid.”
Brown believes Ricciardo can have his opportunity to race at Red Bull despite being a reserve driver, citing the example of Nyck de Vries who impressed for Williams in the absence of Alex Albon at the Italian Grand Prix and it landed him a seat at Red Bull sister team Alpha Tauri for the 2023 season.
“Look at what happened with Nyck with one good session. All of a sudden he became hot property,” Brown continued.
“So if one of those guys [at Red Bull] couldn’t race for some reason, and he [Ricciardo] hopped in and all of a sudden he took that car to where it is now, it can just turn on a dime.”
Ricciardo finished the 2022 season in 11th place with 37 points.
He finished in the points in a total of seven races, his best result being a fifth-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix where McLaren had a double points finish with Norris crossing the chequered flag in fourth.
