McLaren Team Principal on ex-driver Ricciardo: ‘We love and support him’

After leaving McLaren at the end of last season as a result of being replaced by Oscar Piastri, Daniel Ricciardo now returns to F1 grid in Hungary driving an AlphaTauri. Andrea Stella, McLaren's Team Principal, praised the team’s former driver.

"I find it quite exciting and interesting. Daniel is, first of all, one of the most popular drivers," Stella began. "Even when he was not driving, we could see anytime he was on television, you could hear the crowd. I think, for Formula 1 in general. We at McLaren, we left with a very good relationship. We love Daniel, so we definitely support him, and we wish him all the best," he summarised his relationship with Ricciardo.

Ricciardo did not have the best of his time at McLaren in the last two season, although he did manage to win a race in Monza. Now, McLaren seem to be more optimistic with Oscar Piastri, another Australia.

"Well, his side of the garage, they kept working in the way with the practice, with the best practice, with the attention that they've had in the previous years. But definitely, it's important from an engineering point of view that you learn as much as possible, having worked with different drivers and having gone through highs and lows," Stella commented on the change.

"What's important in this sport is that every day you are better than yesterday. So, even in terms of the engineering that supported Daniel and now supporting Oscar, there's definitely been quite a lot of learning and self-criticism in a way, which is the way that you actually cash in the learning from experience," he concluded.