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McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl claims that despite currently standing fourth in the constructors' standings, their car is not comfortably the fourth fastest one on the grid. With Alfa Romeo having out-scored the Woking-based team in two of the last four races, Seidl said:
“I wouldn’t say fully comfortable. We are up against strong competition with strong drivers and strong cars and therefore the pecking order can still change depending on different tracks, different conditions, tyre selection. Our target is clear; we want to fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. We have everything in the team together with Lando [Norris] and Daniel [Ricciardo] to do that. We know that the competition will not stand still so we need to make sure we keep developing this car as well, which we will do but it’s obviously encouraging to see the pace we had both in Barcelona and Monaco.”
McLaren secured their first podium of the season with a third-place finish for Lando Norris at the 2022 F1 Imola Grand Prix last month but found both cars outside the points at the very next race in Miami. The team currently has a 18-point advantage over Alfa Romeo.
"We're both going to continue to push" - McLaren boss on Daniel Ricciardo's place in the team
Speculation surrounding Daniel Ricciardo's future at McLaren has brought to light different aspects of the Aussie's contract with the team. Daniel Ricciardo insists that he has a "contract in place" and team owner Zak Brown revealed that he still does have some faith in the eight-time Grand Prix winner.
Speaking about his contract with McLaren, as reported by Sky Sports F1, Ricciardo said:
“I have a contract in place. But I don’t want to be 14th. That’s not why I race, let’s put it like that.”
Zak Brown, who has been vocal about Ricciardo's lack of performance, hinted at the option of terminating the contract early, saying:
“There are mechanisms in which we’re committed to each other and then there’s mechanisms in which we’re not. I’ve spoken with Daniel about it, we’re not getting the results that we both hoped for. But we’re both going to continue to push.”
Brown, however, reiterated his belief in the 32-year-old, saying:
“He showed at Monza [2021 F1 Italian GP] he can win races. We also need to continue to develop our car, it’s not capable of winning races, but we’d like to see him further up the grid. We’ll just play it... I don’t want to say ‘one race at a time’ because we’re not going to one race at a time - but we’ll just see how things develop.”
Daniel Ricciardo currently stands eleventh in the drivers' standings, while Lando Norris is up in seventh with a 37-point advantage.
