Daniel Ricciardo bullishly vowed to see out his current McLaren contract as team principal Andreas Seidl gave the Australian his vote of confidence ahead of qualifying in Azerbaijan.
Poor results from the 32-year-old have led to speculation over his future with the team, with some suggesting he might be let go a year early. CEO Zak Brown added fuel to the fire when he publicly admitted Ricciardo's performances had not met "his or our expectations".
But he has now been given assurance over his future, after Seidl confirmed that the team intends to honour that contract which runs to the end of the 2023 season. His words will be music to Ricciardo's ears, even if the Australian was claiming that he was not listening to the noise.
" Formula 1 is a team sport and it doesn't matter to me whether it's mechanics, engineers or the driver," Seidl told Sky Sports F1. "It's important that we have a culture within the team where internally we are very clear about things that we need to improve.
"It is very clear that it is my job as team boss to protect the team from the outside world. In the last 20 years, I have not seen a driver become faster because he was publicly criticised. We have a contract with Daniel for next year and that's why we're all staying calm, keeping working hard and trying to find those percentages that he is missing at the moment. And then we look forward to better results with him again."
His words came only a few minutes after Ricciardo spoke to Sky Sports himself, and also said that he plans to keep trying with McLaren until at least the end of his current deal. "I am contracted to the team to the end of next year," he said. "So that's pretty much as black and white as it is.
"But I'm also committed to them – I really want to make it work. For sure, the last couple of weekends I haven't been happy with the results. I also sometimes don't mind my back being up against the wall – I like proving people wrong, and moments like Monza last year... days like that, I know how powerful they can be. My hunger is to get that back and have that feeling again."
Asked if he feels he can win races again with McLaren, the Australian added: "Yeah – it's not even because I've done it before, but I know what I feel and I know what I'm capable of. I know that drive and that fire and that determination is there."
