Zak Brown Opens Up About "Very Difficult" Break Up With Ricciardo

Tuesday, 12 December 2023 at 01:00

Updated at Tuesday, 12 December 2023 at 08:59

Mclaren Formula One team CEO Zak Brown reflected on the situation he was in when he decided to end the contract with Daniel Ricciardo.

Current AlphaTauri F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo found himself without a seat in an F1 car at the beginning of the 2023 season after his contract with McLaren ended earlier than it was originally designed to.

Ricciardo was supposed to drive for McLaren at least until the end of the 2023 season, but because of his below-standard performances, the team decided to end their collaboration year early.

Consequently, the British team had to pay the Honey Badger around $18 million according to RacingNews365 as a result of breaking their contract earlier. McLaren's CEO reflected on the situation on the Track Limits podcast:

"Breaking up with Daniel was very difficult. It just didn’t work out, but that wasn’t the master plan in the end, so that was a very difficult situation."

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The Aussie driver got the McLaren CEO his first win during the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, so he has a bit of a special place in Brown's heart. The CEO continued:

"Especially, something like that is very public, and then everyone has their opinions, and 99% of them don’t actually know what’s going on behind the scenes."

Daniel Ricciardo reflected on the time he got kicked out from McLaren, saying, "It's never the way you want things to end." However, he acknowledged it was "all performance-based" and the business side didn't work out.

While both parties were pretty open about separating their ways, many people on social media still had their own opinions and speculations, and accused McLaren of various things. Brown added it was very difficult period.

"So to get accused of certain behavior… where they’re just not informed, and that’s the nature of the beast when you’re in the spotlight. Everyone has an opinion, but they don’t have the facts, so that was very difficult."

On the positive side, Daniel Ricciardo found himself a seat in AlphaTauri already throughout the 2023 season and is confirmed to be a driver for the team in 2024 as well, so his career did not end with McLaren's breakup.