Eddie Jordan says Daniel Ricciardo must up his game if he is to stay in F1, with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris ‘destroying’ him this season.
One of the best drivers on the grid a few years ago, Ricciardo joined McLaren in 2021 in what is proving to be an ill-fated move for the Australian.
The 32-year-old was consistently beaten by Norris last season, although he did pick up the team’s first win since 2012 at the Italian Grand Prix and it was hoped that after a year of settling in at his new team Ricciardo would be back to his best.
However, that has not proven to be the case and if anything the gap between Ricciardo and Norris has widened with the former 11th in the standings after seven races, having finished in the top 10 just once this season.
Meanwhile Norris, who is 10 years younger, has continued his rapid development, finishing on the podium in Imola and is currently 37 points ahead of his teammate.
‘He’s letting races flow by, and you very seldom get a chance to claw this back,’ the former owner and team principal of the Jordan F1 team told Channel 4.
‘I think I’d be watching his career path from now on because I’m not sure how much further he can go. Lando is destroying him, mentally, physically and on the track.
‘And when you have that kind of a scenario inside of a team, it gets to you. So, he needs to shake it up immediately.’
Prior to last Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, where Ricciardo finished 13th compared to Norris in sixth, McLaren CEO Zak Brown claimed that the former Renault and Red Bull driver had ‘not met expectations’ and suggested that his contract which runs until the end of next season could be terminated early.
That would be a bold measure and one that former McLaren driver Jenson Button disagrees with, and the 2009 world champion was also less than impressed with Brown’s handling of the situation.
‘Zak is his own man, and I can’t change his thoughts and what he says, but I was surprised that he came out and said that,’ Button told Sky Sports.
‘Everyone with the team should be protecting these drivers. Formula 1 is a real mental game. They all have immense skill, but you don’t perform if your head is not in the right place.
‘I’m hoping that they have talked since the race, and they can just focus on really getting the best out of Daniel and the team around him for the rest of the year. Then we’ll see where he ends up in the future. It’s not an easy situation for a driver.’
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