Seidl concedes emotion of Ricciardo McLaren farewell

Sam Hall
Thursday 24 November 2022 11:21

Andreas Seidl believes McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo parted company on a high after scoring points at an emotional season finale.

Ricciardo recovered from a grid penalty to climb from 13th to ninth in his final outing for the team.

Although much of the pre-race buildup focused on Sebastian Vettel's retirement, the Australian is another face that will not feature on the grid in 2023 after agreeing to terminate his McLaren deal a year early.

It has since been announced that Ricciardo has rejoined Red Bull as the team's third driver for the next campaign.

READ MORE: It's official! Ricciardo returns to Red Bull as third driver

“Of course, the entire weekend, including the farewell celebration that we had back home at the factory, the farewell also we had when we did the team barbecue on Thursday night and including the three days here knowing that whatever we did, it was the last time we would do it together with Daniel, it was emotional," said McLaren team principal Seidl.

“But of course, especially on Sunday when Daniel left the garage for the last time to go to the grid and also when I said to have a good race for the last time on the grid, it was emotional.

“In the end, it was simply great to see that he pulled off a great race for us, getting back into the points from P13 was down to a great drive on his side together with the great work of this side of the garage and the pit crew.

“I think we have finished our project together on the best possible high, which was the aim after all of the announcements of the summer break.”

Alpine target missed

McLaren arrived in Abu Dhabi needing 19 points to topple Alpine in the battle to finish fourth in the constructors' standings.

Despite a strong showing and Fernando Alonso's failure to finish, the team fell 14 points short.

Reflecting on how McLaren balanced its send-off for Ricciardo with the task at hand, Seidl added: “We made sure as a team over the weekend, together with Lando and with Daniel, that we kept the focus on trying to pull off the best possible result.

"Because we simply wanted to keep the pressure up on the Alpines to see if there was still a chance to somehow score 19 points more than Alpine and beat them in the constructors’ championship.

“And I think that simply kept us focused on the core task here."