Daniel Ricciardo finished 13th in this week’s Monaco Grand Prix. He has been able to score points in one of the seven races this season – a P6 finish in Australia. The 32-year-old is 11th on the driver standings with as many points while his teammate Lando Norris is seventh with 48. 

Ricciardo’s McLaren contract ends in 2023. F1 legend Jacques Villeneuve, in his column, wrote that the Aussie will be ‘sitting on the couch’ next year and no team is going to take him in. 

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“Daniel Ricciardo’s time at McLaren is over. It’s a way to put the pressure on the driver and prepare the media. Ultimately, he has been a highly-paid driver who has cost the team a lot of money. He doesn’t bring in any points and he doesn’t have the speed the team needs to develop the car. So he’s just costing them money. It would be cheaper for them to continue paying Ricciardo’s salary, let him sit on the couch at home and put another driver in the car. It’s a harsh reality, but that’s Formula 1,” the column read. 

McLaren boss Zak Brown had last week admitted that Ricciardo has not delivered this season. 

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“We would obviously like to see Daniel much closer to Lando and have a good inter-team battle. Daniel is just not comfortable yet with the car, we’re trying everything we can. Again it was a disappointing weekend,” the McLaren CEO said. 

Ricciardo’s F1 career started with HRT in 2011. He then joined Red Bull and Renault before coming over to McLaren. In over 200 entries, the Australian driver has secured eight wins. 

He was rated, by F1 expert Tony Dodgins, as the second best driver on the grid in 2014, his first year with Red Bull. Ricciardo was third in 2015, second in 2016, third in 2017, fifth in 2018, seventh in 2019, and fourth in 2020. In 2021, the Aussie fell off the top-10 and he is no where to be seen in 2022. 

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After a disappointing finish in Monaco, Ricciardo said, “Certainly tricky. I mean, these conditions, it’s not often you drive in Monaco in the wet, and the wet is already a handful, let alone on the tightest street circuit. We got to a point where we were slow on the extreme [wet tyre], but to fit an inter for a few laps I thought I would have just lost more time, so tried to ride it out so I could just put a slick on.”

“Ultimately this weekend just wasn’t a good weekend, just not really quick throughout and that was the race.”