McLaren boss Zak Brown has revealed that the team offered outgoing driver Daniel Ricciardo an IndyCar ride in a bid to keep him on its roster, after admitting the Australian’s results in its F1 team “weren’t what we hoped for”.
Aside from a win at last year’s Italian GP, Ricciardo has endured one and a half largely miserable seasons at Woking, so much so that both parties have agreed to terminate his three-year contract a season early.
Under Brown’s leadership, McLaren has expanded its racing activities to now include an IndyCar squad, an Extreme E team and from next year have a presence in Formula E too.
In exploring options for the future whilst Ricciardo struggled in grand prix racing, the McLaren boss said switching to the US’s leading single-seater championship was put on the table.
Ricciardo ultimately opted against making a jump Stateside
IndyCar
Keeping Ricciardo in the McLaren ‘family’ may have also saved the team money, as it will now likely have to pay off Ricciardo to not see out the final year of his contract.
“Yes, we spoke about that,” he said when asked if IndyCar was an option. “As Andrew [Seidl] said, he’s an exceptional racing driver and any team that he drives for is so privileged to have Daniel drive for them, and we do have a variety of racing activities.