Formula One 2022: Australian F1 legend Alan Jones questions Daniel Ricciardo’s future at McLaren

Australian F1 legend Alan Jones has weighed in on Daniel Ricciardo’s struggles at McLaren this season and offered a blunt piece of advice.

Daniel Ricciardo is having a tough season at McLaren. Picture: Andrej Isakovic/AFP

Former world champion Alan Jones has predicted Daniel Ricciardo won’t be at McLaren for “too much longer” unless he can turn his waning results around, adding “nice guys” don’t get anywhere in Formula One.

As speculation continues to mount about Ricciardo’s future after his F1 season from hell continued in Monaco, Jones said he had “no doubt” McLaren would exercise clauses in the Australian’s contract to part ways if he can’t improve his racing fortunes.

McLaren boss Zak Brown turned up the pressure on Ricciardo last week when he said the team had “mechanisms” in the eight-time race winner’s contract, which expires at the end of 2023, that could terminate it early.

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It followed Brown’s previous comments that Ricciardo had not “met his or our expectations” and Lando Norris had a clear “edge” over his more experienced teammate.

Ricciardo, 32, has endured a nightmare start to his second season at McLaren, managing only one top-10 finish in the first seven races – a sixth place in Australia – and sits 11th in the driver standings.

Speculation is mounting about Daniel Ricciardo’s future after a horror start to the year. Picture: Andrej Isakovic/AFP

Jones said Ricciardo’s place on the F1 grid could be in danger if he was not able to find a way to spark his on-track form.

“(His future at McLaren) is questionable at the moment,” Jones said.

“I don’t know if it’s in jeopardy or not, but unless he makes a few improvements, quick smart, I really can’t see him being there for too much longer to be honest.

“A contract in Formula One doesn’t mean much.

“At the end of the day, and I hope to god he doesn’t, but if the situation remains the same as it is I have no doubt in my mind they will exercise one of those options that are in the contract.

“He is a great little race driver and he is a hell of a nice guy but, of course, we all know nice guys don’t get anywhere, particularly in Formula One.

“The biggest d*ck you are, the better off you are. There are a few out there at the moment that have proved that.”

Alan Jones says Daniel Ricciardo’s future at McLaren is “questionable”. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Ricciardo’s horror season began before the opening race when he had to sit out the second pre-season test in Bahrain after contracting Covid.

He was forced to retire from the second race in Saudi Arabia; accepted blame for a first-lap clash with Carlos Sainz that ruined his race at Imola and finished 13th at Monaco last week after a crash in Friday practice hampered him heading into qualifying.

All the while, he has been consistently outperformed by 22-year-old Norris, who sits seventh in the drivers’ championship.

Brown said last week Ricciardo was still “not comfortable yet with the car” but Jones could not cop that excuse.

“This has always been the problem, you can’t pull into the pits and say ‘This car is a bucket of poo and then have the engineer look into the cockpit and say ‘Really? Well your teammate is on the front row’,” Jones said.

“I can never really abide by this never getting used to the car or anything like that, it’s got a steering wheel, it’s got a seat, it’s got four wheels, you work with your engineer to maybe cure a few little things.

Daniel Ricciardo had another poor weekend at Monaco. Picture: Andrej Isakovic/AFP

“It’s something that is achievable and obviously Norris is coping with all of that a lot better than Ricciardo is doing.”

But Jones, the 1980 F1 world champion, conceded Brown’s comments had not been “helpful”.

“If I was a driver and the team boss said that, I would probably take a bit of an exception to it. But all drivers are different,” Jones said.

“Most drivers need cuddling and sort of reassuring and ego-boosting because most of them have got egos that you can’t jump over. To deflate somebody I think is counter productive.”

Jones said he hoped Ricciardo could block out the noise about his future to “prove everyone wrong”.

“The thing he has got to be super careful of now is that he doesn’t let all this get to him,” Jones said.

“You can start overdriving the car and maybe making a few decisions that you wouldn’t normally if you wouldn’t normally if you were totally relaxed. I see that as a real danger area for him at the moment.

“I just think he has got to buckle down, block all of this out of his head and say to himself he is going to prove all of these people wrong because the more he thinks about it, the worse he will get.”

Originally published as Formula One 2022: Australian F1 legend Alan Jones questions Daniel Ricciardo’s future at McLaren