Daniel Ricciardo will leave Renault F1 for McLaren at the end of the year but Cyril Abiteboul intends to apply the same policy as Zak Brown towards Carlos Sainz (who will go to Ferrari): hide nothing from his driver who will go and not to disadvantage it either.
This is what the director of Renault F1 wanted to clarify today when asked how it was going to be like this last full season of collaboration to be carried out again.
“There will be no preferential treatment for Esteban (Ocon) over Daniel because of this decision,” says the Frenchman.
“It is not in our policy, it is also not a necessity. Let us be honest: we are not fighting for a title for the moment. It would therefore be incongruous to do that. And I can even add that Daniel will be involved in the development of our car. “
“Indeed, with the chassis freezing between this year and the next, McLaren will have to spend all its chips to integrate its new engine (Mercedes). We will therefore have the opportunity to work completely normally, without hiding anything, Daniel. “
Ricciardo will not be able to use his knowledge of the RS20 and even the RS21 at McLaren because of the limits imposed on development.
“It is clear however that he will not be exposed to our F1 project for 2022,” adds Abiteboul. “Frankly, even in normal times, it would not have been because we are still far from being able to refine it from the point of view of a driver, even if a good part of our teams are already on F1 of 2022. “
Has Abiteboul ever thought in depth about the Australian’s replacement?
“I don’t want to dwell on this more than that, but I do want to say, and Daniel agrees with me, that we have a common mission: to erase our frustrations from last year together. I really believe that we we can do better this year, we have a definitely better car. “
“What I can say is that Daniel is a great driver and he has a great personality, so that will be the profile to look for in all those who come to our minds. But, at the moment, the emphasis is on what we need to do this year. “
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