Zak opens up on the rumours around Herta’s potential recruitment, says Daniel Ricciardo’s future with the team will…

McLaren boss Zak Brown says Daniel Ricciardo’s future with the team will come under review later this year despite him being contracted for 2023.

Ricciardo is in the second season of a three-year deal with McLaren, where he has struggled to settle since joining from Renault.

Speculation around Ricciardo’s F1 future has ramped up in recent days with 22-year-old American IndyCar driver Colton Herta linked to his seat.

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, Brown confirmed talks will be held “laterish this year” about McLaren’s driver line-up with several young drivers in the mix for Ricciardo’s spot

“We have another year together (with Ricciardo),” Brown added.

“We do like to think long out, hence doing some testing with Pato (O’Ward), we’re going to do some testing with Colton (Herta) We’ve got Ugo (Ugochukwu) in Formula 4, he put it on pole in his first race.

Zak opens up on the rumours around Herta’s potential recruitment, says Daniel Ricciardo’s future with the team will…

“So I don’t think you can ever plan too early, but there’s no rush.”

Rumours around Herta’s potential recruitment have grown this week with the introduction of an American driver high on F1’s wishlist.

Brown said earlier this year that McLaren has a plan for Herta, who has been signed to its development program and will test its 2021 car later this year.

“Yes, we’ve now got a plan installed for Colton,” Brown told RACER last month. “That’s up to (team principal) Andreas Seidl to communicate that outwardly when he’s ready to communicate it.

“But yes, we have a plan.”

Nonetheless, Brown said he believed Ricciardo was feeling better in the McLaren cockpit than last year despite the growing gap to teammate Lando Norris.

Asked if Ricciardo was more comfortable, Brown said: “Yeah, I think for sure. His race days have been very strong, much better in qualifying.

“Listening to him earlier this week with the team, I think he still doesn’t think he’s 10/10 on top of the car, but he’s got a great relationship with Lando, he knows the team well … we’re really happy to see Daniel on top of his game.”

Ricciardo’s best finish this season was sixth in Australia, while he’s 24 points behind Norris after four races.

Formula 1 will gain two major additions with motorsport giants Porsche and Audi set to join the category, parent group Volkswagen confirmed this week.

VW chief Herbert Diess said that there had been divisions within the group over joining F1, but the board was eventually convinced to enter its two biggest brands.

“You just run out of arguments (against it),” Diess said.