Formula 1

Ricciardo reveals periodic talks with McLaren and warns: "I don't need to be kicked"

In another season below expectations at McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he has been talking to the team about ways to improve and sees the car evolving after Monaco

In a season in which Daniel Ricciardo scored only 15 points in nine races, his future is constantly speculated outside McLaren. The Australian driver arrived at the English team last year, but has not yet shown full adaptation to the car - which is completely different this year - and has even led to some public statements from the team's CEO, Zak Brown, clearly dissatisfied with his performance.

After the race in Canada - in which McLaren had a day to forget and came out zero - Ricciardo revealed that he has been talking to the team about the matter, but denied that it was a 'tug of war'. According to the Australian driver, the team has held regular meetings with him in order to understand how they can help improve his performance.

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Ricciardo said he has been talking to McLaren about ways he can get better (Photo: McLaren)

"We certainly had some talks," Ricciardo admitted in an interview with the RacingNews365 portal. "I mean, that sounds very formal. We spend some time together, but it's not really an annual thing, we do it once every couple of months. It's not like I need a kick in the butt either. I know how my results are and I know what's good and what's not. It's just them seeing if there is anything they can do to help," he assured.

Currently, Ricciardo is only 13th in the Drivers' World Championship, and his 15 points are distributed over just three races: Australia, Imole and Azerbaijan. The performance has been completely different from his teammate Lando Norris, who has already scored 50 times and is seventh in the table, behind only the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers.

However, Ricciardo believes that the tables could be turning for McLaren, especially after the Monaco race. Despite the bad result in Canada, the Australian said that the team "tried some things" on the car that worked and preferred to focus on the weekends when the team was able to get more out of the MCL36.

"I feel we made a little bit of progress after Monaco with the factory in the simulator, where we tried some things," Ricciardo said. "I think even if our result [in Canada] was not good, the last few weekends have certainly been better and have shown more promise," he closed.