Formula 1: McLaren were ‘pretty close’ to signing Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed that the team were “pretty close” to signing Daniel Ricciardo for the 2019 Formula 1 season.

In June, it was revealed that McLaren had a chance to sign Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo for the 2019 Formula 1 season. However, Ricciardo ended up signing a two-year contract to drive for Renault Sport, which will send him to the sport’s lone French organization starting next year.

But even though Ricciardo signing with Renault as opposed to re-signing with Red Bull Racing was a shock to the majority of Formula 1’s fanbase in itself, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed that McLaren were actually “pretty close” to signing the 29-year-old Australian for the 2019 season themselves.

Here is what Brown had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“We had a couple of meetings and we are big fans of Daniel. I think he’s a great guy, I think he’s a great race car driver. How close we came to getting him, I think only Daniel knows the answer to that question. Had we been running more competitively I think that would have increased our odds.“I think he had a strong desire to leave and I think it was probably pretty close between us and Renault, but ultimately Daniel would be best to tell you how close. But he was certainly someone that we rate very highly and think he’s a great race car driver and a great guy.”"

Both of McLaren’s current two drivers, two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, are driving with contracts that expire following the conclusion of the 2018 season, and both of them have a lot of uncertainty surrounding their futures.

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In fact, many people believe that Alonso will leave Formula 1 completely ahead of next season if he does not sign with one of the sport’s top-tier teams, and many people believe that he will drive full-time in IndyCar, possibly for McLaren.

Regardless of whether or not Alonso becomes a full-time IndyCar driver next year, the odds that the 37-year-old Spaniard returns to Formula 1 as a McLaren driver next season are not high, especially with McLaren reserve driver Lando Norris waiting in the wings as his potential and likely replacement.

The future of Vandoorne is also very unclear, especially given the fact that he has been outperformed by Alonso throughout much of the 2018 season and the fact that he has not scored any points in the last eight races after scoring points in three of the first four races of the season.

With all of that in mind, McLaren very well could have replaced Vandoorne with Ricciardo for next season. Seeing as how Ricciardo re-signing with Red Bull Racing was not a sure thing despite the fact that many people thought it was since he signed with Renault instead, he very well could have been as close to signing with McLaren as Brown believes he was.

How close do you believe that McLaren were to signing Daniel Ricciardo for the 2019 Formula 1 season? What factors do you believe would have needed to be different for the seven-time Grand Prix winner to sign with the Woking-based organization?