Zak Brown admits his decision to part ways with Daniel Ricciardo was "the toughest thing" the McLaren boss has ever had to do in his motorsport career.
Last August, McLaren opted to cut its losses with Ricciardo after a year and a half of disappointing results.
Although the Aussie delivered to McLaren its first F1 win in nine years when he triumphed at Monza in 2021, Ricciardo's track record with the papaya squad has been void of any other significant results, or even another podium.
Efforts by both parties were made to understand and improve the 33-year-old's performance deficit, but the eight-time Grand Prix winner's form unfortunately remained sub-par for reasons that neither team nor driver clearly understood.
"Ultimately, we weren’t getting the results we needed and we were a year-and-a-half into this," Brown told Fox Sports Australia.
"We’ve all tried extremely hard. We love Daniel, he’s great to work with and continues to be great to work with. But we are in the results business and the results weren’t coming and we felt we tried everything.
"We don’t really know why it didn’t click, it’s kind of nobody’s fault. We gave it our best, he gave it his best…we just kind of ran out of things to try. Sometimes athletes go into slumps or need a change of environment."
Brown revealed that he was open to keeping Ricciardo in the McLaren family and subsequently offered his driver opportunities to race in IndyCar or in Formula E.
"I’m a huge Daniel fan. I’m still a huge Daniel fan and that will never change," Brown explained.
"I asked him if he wanted to drive for us in IndyCar or Formula E… I’d love to keep Daniel in the family but he’s still very focused on Formula 1 – which I get, it’s the pinnacle of motorsport. I’d love to race with him again.
"It’s probably the toughest thing I’ve had in my time in motorsports. It wasn’t pleasant, not fun," added the American.
"But my job, along with Andreas [Seidl, McLaren F1 team boss], is to make the tough decisions and because we didn’t really see progress happening, it was like ‘well, I think we just need to make a change for both of our sakes and hopefully get him in the situation where he can be competitive again and in an F1 car wherever he ends up racing’, but (it’s been) a huge disappointment."
McLaren and Ricciardo are now peacefully winding down their collaboration together, with four races to go. While disappointed with the outcome of the partnership, Brown insists his relationship with Ricciardo hasn't suffered through the divorce process.
"We were transparent through the whole process and I know there had been tons of media speculation about when it happened, how it happened," Brown said.
"Daniel and I know what really happened and I think that’s why we still very much have a strong relationship.
"It was all transparent, well-communicated and there are times when we can tell people what’s going on and other times we just can’t.
"What’s most important to me is when Daniel and I see each other, we give each other a big hug and we’ve got four races to go and we will give it all we’ve got."
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