Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that he signed a three-year contract with McLaren, stating that it is enough time to “get this thing going”.
The Australian arrives in Woking after two years with Renault, where his performance levels were high but the team failed to develop as fast as he would have liked.
Prior to his departure from Red Bull, Ricciardo spoke with McLaren about a potential move but opted for Renault.
However, he now believes that the team has the infrastructure and stability to build upon, something that perhaps was not the case back in 2018.
“I guess I can say, I’ve got nothing to hide – it’s three years,” Ricciardo said. “It’s certainly enough time to get this thing going.
“I feel like I’m coming here with a bunch of momentum behind the team as well. I think, not only results, but there’s really good stability in the team, infrastructure.
“When I talked to McLaren a couple of years ago in 2018, I don’t think Andreas [Seidl] was there yet, James Key wasn’t, so there were still quite a few moving parts.
“Ultimately, the results weren’t quite there on track yet, but they were still trying to figure out their own structure and trying to establish that now.
“I’m basically just fitting into the puzzle as opposed to trying to put it all together. I’m certainly feeling good about it, hanging out to try the car, but it all feels pretty right at the moment.”
While the move to Renault did not quite go to plan, Ricciardo was on the podium twice with the Enstone-based outfit last season, winning him a bet with team principal Cyril Abiteboul.
The terms of the wager meant that the Frenchman would get a tattoo if Ricciardo made it onto the podium, and the 31-year-old revealed that Abiteboul has not yet followed through on his side of the bargain.
“You will definitely know when I get done with Cyril,” he added.
“Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened yet. But it will, it will. And we certainly left on the terms that there was still some unfinished business, that business being the tattoo.
“I hope it does happen. Obviously sooner rather than later, but it definitely will.
“We were just only a couple of hours ago having some lunch with Zak and he mentioned something about him hating needles.
“So I can’t see the tattoo thing happening with Zak. But we’ll think of something else.
“I know he’s got a pretty good car collection so maybe we could just bet for one of his cars or something.”
El 2021 Fórmula 1 season gets underway on March 28 in Bahrain.
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