Is Daniel Ricciardo's future at McLaren in jeopardy? Will the F1 star be replaced?

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo has had a tough start to his F1 2022 season as the Australian is currently at the 11th spot on the F1 driver's standings. Daniel Ricciardo suffered COVID before the start of the F1 season after which he failed to collect enough points in the first four races. In the latest developing story, Yahoo has reported that Daniel Ricciardo could lose his F1 seat even before the end of the current season.

F1 news: Daniel Ricciardo Mclaren seat in jeoprady

Daniel Ricciardo has so far collected points at the Australian GP. The Australian finished 14th in Bahrain, while he failed to finish the race in Saudi Arabia. During the recent Emilia Romagna GP Ricciardo finished 18th. According to a Yahoo report, veteran F1 reporter Joe Saward has claimed there were rumours young IndyCar driver Colton Herta is in contention to grab a spot at McLaren.

Saward in his column wrote, "Australians are pretty excited about F1 at the moment, although Daniel Ricciardo seems a little lost at McLaren and there continue to be rumours that in 2024 (if not earlier) Daniel will be replaced by Colton Herta, the American who Zak Brown believes could open the gates of Formula 1 to corporate America,"

He added, " We will have to see if Herta has everything needed to be an F1 star, but he seems to have the speed, whether he can go on being a drummer in a rock band called Zibs in his spare time remains to be seen, as F1 is a full time job."

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Daniel Ricciardo talks about apology to Carlos Sainz

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz's and McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo did not have a good race at Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as both the drivers hit each other right at the start of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. For Carlos Sainz lasted for just two and a half corners after he was spun into the gravel by Ricciardo forcing him to retire. The Mac Laren driver also endured a poor outing finishing last in Imola. Following the race, Ricciardo apologised to the Ferrari driver for his mistake.

Recently the Australian driver appeared on Trevor Noah's talk show where he shared his feeling regarding putting his pride aside and apologising to his rival. He said,  “I hated every second of the apology. ,” Ricciardo joked, “Probably just with experience and being in it (F1) for so long, I have the maturity to know how much we all put into it and as competitive as we are, we all have something strongly in common".

He added, "There’s only 20 of us in the world that do it, there’s only 20 F1 drivers. You respect everyone’s journey. The incident — if I hold myself accountable for something — then I feel like I want to apologise. It’s nothing personal. I don’t think everyone would do it but for me, I felt better by doing it so we (can have a) clean slate for the next one."