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Daniel Ricciardo: McLaren boss Zak Brown pays tribute to outgoing driver as team sidesteps Oscar Piastri links

Daniel Ricciardo's departure from McLaren was confirmed on Wednesday; Oscar Piastri is expected to take his fellow Australian's seat for the 2023 campaign; watch the Belgian GP this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1, with first practice live at 1pm on Friday

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Daniel Ricciardo says he will leave McLaren at the end of the 2022 season after coming to a mutual agreement, but will look back at his time with the team with a smile, saying he'll 'never forget Monza'.

McLaren boss Zak Brown paid tribute to Daniel Ricciardo as the team refused to comment on speculation that its outgoing driver will be replaced by Oscar Piastri next season.

Ricciardo, who has endured an underwhelming stint with the Woking team since joining in 2021, announced on Wednesday that he would be leaving McLaren at the end of the current campaign after agreeing a mutual early termination of his contract.

The Australian had insisted as recently as July that he would be remaining with the team to fulfil the final year of his contract in 2023, but following Wednesday's announcement, McLaren chief executive Brown and team principal Andreas Seidl said that all parties had agreed the relationship was not working.

"It's obviously not a secret that if you look at the 18 months we've worked together so far, we didn't achieve the results we wanted to achieve together," Seidl said ahead of the season's resumption following the summer break at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

"Despite being able to have some real highlights like the win last year in Monza, despite all the effort he has put in and the commitment, despite all the work we have put in on our side, we just couldn't achieve the results that we wanted to achieve together.

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Following the news that Ricciardo will leave McLaren at the end of the season, take a look at his greatest race victories for Red Bull.

"That's why Zak and myself had a lot of conversations in the last month with Daniel, just to be transparent and clear on where we are on both sides. In the end, unfortunately we didn't really make it work and that's why we wanted to go for a change next year."

Brown said that parting with the hugely popular Ricciardo was the "saddest" decision he had made during his tenure in charge at McLaren.

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"Yes, certainly during my time at McLaren," Brown said. "Daniel's a wonderful person and a great person to be around. We've had many laughs, we've sprayed champagne together and it's very personal.

"Today is a sad day - that things didn't work out as we hoped they would. I'm going to look back with some very fond memories, some fun times together on and off the track.

"We're in a business where Andreas and everyone here at McLaren, we need to focus on ultimate performance, and we hope and wish Daniel the best. There's absolutely no ill-will between us. It's all very amicable. And I think he too has had a good time at McLaren.

"He's still young, so we hope to see him in a competitive racing car. And one of these days we might see him being a pian for us on the racetrack, and that will be fun because he's a good competitor."

McLaren refuse to comment on Piastri links

Confirmation of Ricciardo's departure opens the door for fellow Australian Piastri to join McLaren as Lando Norris' team-mate, although Alpine are still adamant they have a contract for their wantaway youngster to stay.

McLaren's and Ricciardo's future had remained unclear until early August, when Fernando Alonso kickstarted a wild sequence of events by announcing he was leaving Alpine for Aston Martin in 2023, before Alpine appeared to act quickly by announcing their current reserve Piastri.

However, F1 hopeful Piastri refuted his team's statement in a now infamous social media post, and insisted he will be racing elsewhere next season.

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Paul Di Resta is surprised at Oscar Piastri's rejection of an Alpine seat next season and thinks the young Australian has another seat lined up for 2022.

McLaren are the team who are believed to have an agreement with Piastri, and have been intending to move on from Ricciardo for months.

Piastri is expected to join McLaren, assuming it is cleared by the FIA's Contract Recognition Board, with Alpine arguing that they have a contract for Piastri, and the Australian sure he has an option to leave.

Asked about his team's driver line-up for 2023, Brown joked: "It'll definitely be (confirmed) before the first race of next year.

"We're totally focused on Daniel at the moment, then we're going to shift to being totally focused on going racing this weekend, and we're going to step aside from any commentary or speculation on who the driver might be or what type of driver might be or where they come from.

"I recognise everyone is eager to understand what our plans are, but we'll announce that in due course. We just want to focus now on having a successful weekend in Spa."

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