McLaren

DANIEL RICCIARDO'S McLaren future has been the subject of speculation following a disappointing start to the 2022 F1 season.

The American also argued that his previous comments were not intended as criticism: “It was just an honest answer, it wasn’t meant to be critical,” he said. Indeed, he lies 14th in the current standings with only 15 points, trailing Norris by 43, leading to rumours his place at McLaren was in jeopardy. McLaren boss Zak Brown has dismissed suggestions that Daniel Ricciardo won't see out his contract with the team despite his struggles so far in 2022.

As McLaren pushed their F1 cars out onto the grid for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last Sunday, a team of 12 analysts sat down at their computer ...

These are small details, but ones that point to an important aspect of what it is like to be immersed in the world of McLaren, where the best is non-negotiable. And with Norris, there is a genuine belief within the team that he will be a world champion one day after committing himself until 2025 at least. Likewise, some of the structural steel poles that reinforce the balcony areas were deemed to be "too thick" in the design process and were slimmed down accordingly, as per Dennis' wishes. Their work was done, but there is no rest for the wicked, with another race in Austria to come in a week’s time. We are told they keep them located right next to the canteen hall to motivate staff "to get back to work in the right frame of mind after eating". The 23-year-old performs admirably in maintaining his position and decent lap times and it is startling, although utterly brilliant, to hear the authentic cackle of the radio beep as he speaks to the team. Norris comes home in sixth, while Ricciardo disappointingly only manages to finish 13th of the 14 cars left on track after failing to catch Nicholas Latifi late in the race. As the race gets back underway after a 45-minute delay to clear away the wreckage, Norris and Ricciardo experience different fortunes. There is another curious detail in which the circuit is not a clock, but a simple spherical shape with dots representing the 20 cars — apparently engineers "don’t like corners". Graphs that show colourful patterns about aerodynamics, a mockup design of the car's composition and the circuit are scattered all over the enormous 150-inch display in front of them. And that allows those in the compact booth to observe without distracting the dozen McLaren engineers sat at the pristine white tables, with each person enticed by the content on their futuristic computer screens. At first glance, there is a similarity in the design to what a James Bond villain’s lair would typically look like, with an impressively large lake preceding the 500,000 sq ft building, huge glass windows and a steel exterior.

Lando Norris finished 20th, three places behind Daniel Ricciardo during FP1 in Austria, as McLaren's woes continue.

The honey badger, and teammate Norris will hope that McLaren find the answers to their problems before the Qualifying session gets under way. The 2022 Austrian GP is a sprint weekend, which means Norris and Ricciardo had just one of running before qualifying. This weekend however has gone off to a horrid start for him, Ricciardo and the entire McLaren team.

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris admits it could be tough for him to maintain his recent strong Austrian GP form this weekend due to the team's ...

So this year, we'll have to wait and see. "I think this year we're a little bit slower in a straightline than we'd like to be. We were relatively decent in the straights as well, in previous years. "So similar to Silverstone, which obviously was a decent weekend for us in terms of pace, with no upgrades. And we are aware of that. "We still have a slight weakness, let's say," Norris said.

With the Red Bull Ring hosting one of the season's three Sprint races, teams had just one hour to hone their cars ahead of today's qualifying session, due to ...

It was also a problematic session for his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who had an issue with his Drag Reduction System (DRS). The Australian’s best time of 1:07.743 was only 17th fastest. After discovering a problem, Norris had presumably been asked to try and make it back to the pits. However, it was a session to forget for McLaren, who saw star driver Norris pull off the circuit after less than 20 minutes.

Emma Gilmour suffered a roll during Thursday's Crazy Race, and while McLaren was initially looking to repair the car ahead of this weekend's third round of the ...

McLaren had a solid, if unlucky start to the week with Gilmour setting a strong pace during her qualifying lap in Q1, before Tanner Foust suffered a mechanical failure once he took over the car. So we have had to change the chassis.” It’s the second such incident for McLaren in its short XE history, with Tanner Foust also rolling out of the Crazy Race at the first round in Saudi Arabia, although with a 19-week gap between rounds one and two as opposed to the single day between rounds two and three, the rebuild this time around is much more taxing.

'Oh yeah': McLaren boss drops Ricciardo contract hint, hits back at criticism of brutal honesty.

I think we have that with Daniel and Lando.” “I know it caused a lot of ripples outside [but] Daniel and I have a great relationship. “As he said last year, he didn’t feel he had a good season last year and he still won. “It was just an honest answer, it wasn’t meant to be critical,” he said. We’ve just got to figure out how to unlock it, give him a car that he’s more comfortable with.” Expectations were high that Ricciardo’s driving style mismatch with last year’s car would evaporate under the all-new rules for 2022, but so far he’s returned barely improved results compared to his troubled first campaign.

Ricciardo's teammate Lando Norris made it to the next qualifying session after clocking in the eighth-fastest time in a clear indication that the ...

Daniel Ricciardo's miserable season continued as he was dumped out of Q1 in Austria - Daniel Ricciardo's misery continued after he was dumped out of Q1 in Austria Daniel Ricciardo's miserable season continues after McLaren driver is DUMPED out of Q1 ahead of the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix