McLaren adamant Oscar Piastri will ‘find his own way’ despite Daniel Ricciardo’s troublesome stint

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella is confident Oscar Piastri won't suffer the same woes as Daniel Ricciardo at the Woking-based team. The F2 champion has replaced the Honey Badger for the 2023 season and will start alongside Lando Norris later this year.

The entire F1 world could not understand why Daniel Ricciardo failed at the British team, given his past successful stint with Red Bull. The Australian was unable to adjust his driving style to suit that of the car. As a result, he was consistently outperformed by his much younger teammate Lando Norris.

Many have wondered whether Oscar Piastri will face similar issues. However, McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella claims the young Australian driver will be fine on his own due to his vast racing experience.

As quoted by GPFans, Stella said:

“In Formula 1, you pretty much get a very good idea from the numbers of what your competitiveness is. With the drivers, you deal with subtleties, the final percentage of your performance… So the journey we want to take with Oscar is also an independent journey."

He added:

"He’s certainly very talented, and we want him to use his references. References from the car, references from even what we learned with Daniel, and so on. We are quite adamant that he will have enough talent, process, [and] intelligence to find his own way, taking advantage of these references.”

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Mclaren puzzled by Daniel Ricciardo's failure

McLaren boss Zak Brown claims he is puzzled by Daniel Ricciardo's lack of success with McLaren in 2021 and 2022. The Australian ended his stint with the English team a year early and has chosen to return to Red Bull, where he will take on the role of the third driver.

Zak Brown is unsure why Daniel Ricciardo was unable to find success with his team, expressing his confusion in an interview with Speedcafe.

Brown said:

"We've certainly analyzed it. We gave it everything we've got, Daniel gave it everything he's got and our relationship with Daniel was great. It was clearly disappointing for both of us as to the outcome but I think it's a bit of a great mystery as to why."

He added:

"I don't think Daniel knows, we don't know, we tried everything. Maybe we worked too hard. I think, ultimately, that's why we both decided to make a change because we had tried everything and we really didn't know why it wasn't clicking."

Ricciardo could benefit from a break from the grid in 2023 as he will have time to ask himself some tough questions. He claims that watching the grid take off in Bahrain next year could influence if he wants to return to the grid in a full-time capacity the following year.

If he wants to make his return in 2024, then realizing that early on in the 2023 season might be extremely beneficial from a planning perspective.

It will be interesting to see how McLaren deals with the 2023 season with their new hotshot Oscar Piastri. With the new season coming up in less than two months, it will be interesting to see how the Woking-based team fares.