McLaren

Ricciardo relishing break from F1

Ewan Gale Sunday 7 August 2022 15:02

Daniel Ricciardo has revealed he 'needs' the F1 summer break after a difficult start to the season.

The Australian has scored in only four grands prix of 13 so far with team-mate Lando Norris comprehensively outperforming him in the sister MCL36.

Both Ricciardo and McLaren had confirmed they were committed to each other with a year remaining on his contract, despite murmurings throughout the season that there was disharmony - triggered by comments made by CEO Zak Brown that the eight-time race winner had underachieved since arriving last year.

Speculation had cooled but Ricciardo's future has been thrust back into the limelight after Sebastian Vettel's announcement that he would retire at the end of the season.

Fernando Alonso promptly jumped ship from Alpine but whilst Oscar Piastri seemed a certainty for the Spaniard's place, the reigning F2 champion refuted the French manufacturer's promotion with a drive at McLaren to replace Ricciardo now more likely.

Speaking ahead of the driver market storm and referring to the three-week break before the Belgian Grand Prix, Ricciardo insisted: “I need it.

"More so because it hasn’t been a good six months but even if the season was going awesome, I think a break is still nice just to get away.

"F1 these days is intense and even the hotels, they’re full of people and weekends are just so full on that I think just getting away from the circus for a few weeks is going to be nice.”

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes

Latest News

F1 Off the Track

Horner blasted with incredible Star Wars villain jibe

14 minutes ago

Feature

Astonishing details of Ricciardo's F1 COMEBACK revealed

1 hour ago

Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari issue official team statement in HUGE Hamilton car update

2 hours ago

Max Verstappen

Verstappen and Williams star in fiery X-RATED spat

3 hours ago

Latest F1 News

Ferrari 'SELF-DESTRUCT' alert issued over Hamilton arrival

Today 18:57

Latest F1 News

Aston Martin handed huge BLOW after Newey 2026 statement issued

Today 17:57

More news

F1 News 24/7

Races

About GPFans

GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.

We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.

With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.

Follow us on your favorite social media channel

Corporate & Media

Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860

CHOOSE YOUR COUNTRY

Ricciardo relishing break from F1

Ricciardo relishing break from F1