“Something has to change” at McLaren following Daniel Ricciardo‘s disappointing 12th place at the Spanish Grand Prix, according to former driver Martin Brundle.
For the fifth time in six races this season Ricciardo failed to finish in the points, leaving him languishing in 11th spot in the drivers’ championship.
His 11 world championship points compares unfavourably with his teammate Lando Norris, who has scored 39 points.
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Norris battled tonsillitis in Spain, but still managed to finish eighth.
Writing in his column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle said the current situation can’t continue.
“Both McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo must be very concerned about his relative lack of pace at the moment regardless of which tyres they threw at it during the race,” he wrote.
“Something has to change there.”
Speaking after the race, Ricciardo said he had no idea why he was so slow.
“I wasn’t there from the start. And it wasn’t like I had understeer – I mean, I did – but it was just overall lack of grip,” he said.
“I thought at the start of the race, it was very, very slow. I thought, okay, maybe, I don’t know, temperatures just got too high or something with the tyres.
“You know, [at] the start you’re obviously fighting cars and maybe things like that can happen. We did a three-stop race, so I had four sets of tyres today and was very, very slow on all of them so not sure.
“[A] really, really sad race.”
Ricciardo could find himself with a new teammate for this week’s Monaco Grand Prix, if Norris isn’t fit to take his place.
The 22-year-old battled on gamely in Barcelona, describing it as “one of the hardest races ever.”
If he was to miss the Monaco race, McLaren could field an all-Australian lineup, with Oscar Piastri confirmed earlier this year as one of the team’s reserves.
McLaren boss Zak Brown said Norris will be assessed in the coming days.
“He still doesn’t feel great today but he has got four days to recover,” Brown told Sky Sports.
“Sitting here now, he still doesn’t feel good.
“He was very ill. We weren’t even sure he was going to get the clearance from the doctor to drive but fortunately he did. He is a tough guy and he drove great.
“He has tonsillitis and is in bed now so hopefully he will be okay for the weekend in Monaco.”
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