McLaren boss Zak Brown has hinted that there will be a new bet with Daniel Ricciardo this season after Ricciardo won their wager in 2021. At the beginning of last year, Brown made a deal with Ricciardo that, if the Australian achieved a podium finish, he would get the chance to drive his idol Dale Earnhardt's No3 Chevrolet, which features in Brown's extensive collection of historic road and racing cars. Ricciardo subsequently earned his prize by winning the Italian Grand Prix, and now Brown's thoughts are turning to what they will decide to bet on in 2022. "There is no new bet yet, but it's now being discussed," Brown told media including RacingNews365.com . "I guess it's that time of [the] pre-season to start having some fun and thinking about what we might want to do to celebrate some sort of success that we have together."
"Fun" environment with team and drivers
Brown feels that McLaren have a good environment with drivers Ricciardo and Lando Norris, and hopes that the team will have a reason to celebrate this season. "Our drivers are great personalities, and we have a lot of fun with them," he added. "They're extremely serious once the helmet [is] put on, but I think the environment we have with our drivers and our racing team, we do like to have fun, and that's part of it. "So we're going to have to figure that [bet] out because hopefully we'll have something to celebrate this year." As well as allowing Ricciardo to drive Earnhardt's car, Brown also got a tattoo on his arm to mark Ricciardo's victory at Monza. When asked whether he might consider another inking as the 2022 wager, Brown jokingly dismissed the idea, saying: "I think I'm tattooed out!" McLaren recently launched their new car, the MCL36, ahead of the new F1 season getting underway. The first pre-season test kicks off in Barcelona on 23-25 February, and a second testing session follows in Bahrain on 10-12 March. Shortly aftewards, the Bahrain Grand Prix opens the 2022 campaign on 18-20 March.
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