Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t met McLaren’s expectations, Zak Brown says

Ricciardo finished 12th at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend and hasn’t made the impression on the team they had expected

Ricciardo has failed to hit the heights expected (Getty Images)

McLaren team boss Zak Brown says Daniel Ricciardo isn’t hitting the expectations set for him when he joined in 2021.

Apart from winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza last season, Ricciardo has struggled at McLaren and sits 12th in the driver standings this season with just one top-ten finish out of the opening six races.

By contrast, Ricciardo’s teammate, Lando Norris, has achieved a podium finish and is seventh overall, only behind the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, and Brown has said there is a “gap” between the drivers.

“Lando definitely has an edge. Obviously we would like to see Daniel much closer to Lando and have a good intra-team battle,” Brown told Sky Sports. “Daniel’s just not comfortable yet with the car. We are trying everything we can – again it was a disappointing weekend.

“Short of kind of Monza and a few races, it’s generally not kind of met his or our expectations. I think all you can do is keep working hard as a team, keep communications going, keep pushing and hope whatever’s not kind of clicking at the moment clicks here shortly.”

Brown was quick to point out, however, that McLaren isn’t the only team where gaps between drivers are appearing.

“I think it also points to how good Lando is when you look at the gap between Charles [Leclerc] and Carlos [Sainz], the gap between Max [Verstappen] and Sergio [Perez],” said Brown.

“There are gaps between team-mates and I think Lando is one of the best drivers in the world at the moment, and I think it also is kind of a compliment to how good Lando is when you see the gap that exists.”