"At the end of the day, it's a business"- Here's why McLaren parted ways with Daniel Ricciardo, according to former F1 driver

Daniel Ricciardo's former teammate Jean-Eric Vergne feels it's hard not to understand McLaren's decision to part ways with the Australian. Talking about the failed stint for the Australian, the former Red Bull junior talked about how the Aussie had been unable to stay consistent at McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo had one strong race in Monza, where the team secured a 1-2 finish. Other than that, he has been performing at a level below his potential.

According to Vergne, this lack of performance with respect to teammate Lando Norris resulted in the team parting ways with the Australian. In an interview with Sky Sports, Vergne said:

"To be honest I don't know, we make a lot of scenarios with this, the only thing that the team must be seeing is the difference between him and Lando. So yes, he has won a race for McLaren and that race was probably his best race at McLaren. There were also the team orders in that race with Lando being told to hold station behind Daniel Ricciardo to secure a 1-2. Would he have won the race if Lando was allowed to attack him, I don't know. But, unfortunately, that was one good result is not enough."

He added that it is a business and such decisions have to be made:

"At the end of the day, it's a business the teams are not in a business to compete but to win. To be at the best form that they can compete in. When there are two drivers and there is a big difference between them, at the end, when the difference keeps on being the same, I can understand where they are coming from. I'm not saying it's a good way, I'm not saying it's fair. Our sport can be cruel and we've seen it in the past, we see it today and we're gonna keep seeing it in the future."

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Daniel Ricciardo looking forward to F1 Dutch GP in Zandvoort

After another race without points, Daniel Ricciardo was looking forward to the Dutch GP, a track where McLaren should be more competitive. He said:

"I'm looking forward to Zandvoort. It's an awesome circuit with such a fun, almost festival-like atmosphere, which is great for your mood going into the weekend. It's more of an old-school circuit with interesting features like Tarzan and the ability to overtake there, so I'm excited to get on track and see how different it is from last year in the new cars."

He added that the team had spent time trying to fix performance issues:

"I've spent the last couple of days in Amsterdam resetting, eating stroopwafels, and looking at how we can improve for the coming weekend. Last weekend was not what we wanted it to be, but we've bounced back before, so we can do the same this time. We've got some good learnings from Spa, which we can use this weekend, so hopefully, we come out a bit better and can properly battle with the Alpines."

Daniel Ricciardo's future is still not secured in F1, and it will be interesting to see how things pan out for the affable Australian in the sport.