F1 | Monaco GP | Ricciardo in agreement with Brown after the latter states that his time with McLaren hasn't lived up to expectations to date
Daniel Ricciardo has stated that he agrees with recent comments by his team boss Zak Brown that his time at McLaren hasn’t lived up to expectations as the Australian seeks to end a disappointing run of form in Monte Carlo.
Daniel Ricciardo has agreed with Zak Brown’s comments regarding how his time at McLaren has gone so far.
The Australian’s time at the Woking-based team hasn’t been straightforward at best, with a single win at Monza in 2021 the highlight of a tumultuous two-year spell that has seen him regularly be outpaced by Lando Norris.
To add to his woes, his team boss Zak Brown commented on Sky Sports F1's Any Driven Monday that the Australian wasn’t living up to expectations casting further doubt over Ricciardo’s future.
Ricciardo agreed with his team boss when asked about the comments in today’s FIA press conference in which MotorLAT was in attendance, stating that he didn’t take the American’s comments personally.
“Well, it’s not false; it’s pretty true, comments I don’t take it personally; my skin is tanned, beautiful and also thick, but no one’s going to be harder on me than myself. I know I don’t want to be racing around in tenth (or) twelfth place I still believe I can be at the front, so it’s been a little bit more certainly testing at times in terms (of) trying to get up and maximise myself and this car, but yeah we’re working together and hard at it, the team wants it, and I want it, so we’re working through it.”
The new heavier generation of Grand Prix cars hasn’t helped Ricciardo either, admitting that he’s still struggling to gel with the at times temperamental MCL36.
“I think there is still more that I would be like to get out of it, which sometimes I can see and sometimes it’s less clear. I think we’ve also had a few things that have not gone, let’s say, our way and interrupted some of our sessions, so it’s a combination of a few things, but I think even putting that aside it’s still been a little bit tricky to always gel 100% with the car and feel like I can push out these spectacular laps but yeah it’s been more tricky for sure there has been some races at times where it’s been good but honestly still working at it on what to say that yes I am going to be half a second quicker every race from now I would love to, and I am working to get that, but yeah it’s still a bit of a process.”
