Andreas Seidl accepts responsibility for Daniel Ricciardo's failure at McLaren but insisted his team did everything possible to make it happen for the Australian.
But, at the end of this season, Ricciardo will reluctantly away from Woking encouraged by a golden handshake that sends him into an unsure future in Formula 1 at this stage.
The making of the decision to axe the 33-year-old, announced before the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, according to Seidl has been in the making for "several months" and eventually became inevitable.
Speaking during the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Seidl expanded on Ricciardo's axing: "It was obviously sad and a sad day on Wednesday, making the announcement.
"But in the end, I guess, it was no secret that despite all the effort on Daniel’s side, on our side, despite the huge commitment also on both sides, despite having some great highlights together, like the win last year in Monza.
"But we simply didn't manage together to achieve the results that we all had in mind. And that's why we had a lot of conversations."
Andreas: Zak and myself and Daniel had several months of permanent, open and transparent dialogue
The German continued: "In the end, unfortunately, with the fact that we still didn't get it to work we came to the conclusion that we wanted to make a change for next year.
"We came to this mutual agreement of early termination of the contract, which is obviously not the outcome that we all had in mind. It didn't change anything else in terms of the respect I’m personally also having for Daniel, in terms of personality, in terms of the driver he is.
"At the same time, it was important to have clarity now for both sides, to have time also for making up our plans for next year. And, we switch the main focus now in these last nine races."
The Belgian Grand Prix came and went, another well below-par weekend for McLaren, neither Lando Norris (who took engine penalties) and Ricciardo, the pair 11th and 15th respectively on a forgettable day for Seidl's team.
A day before that, he acknowledged that the affair impacted the team: "It's never an easy situation to be in and it was challenging.
"The most important thing for me personally is that myself, Zak as well, together with Daniel, we had several months of permanent, open and transparent dialogue, in order to make sure that we both know where we stand, and that there are no surprises."
I can have a dinner and a beer with Daniel
Seidl added: "That's the most important thing from my side and this is what happened and that's why we are also still in a position now to aim for a good finish of our partnership together.
"That's why we are still in a position as well that I can have a dinner and a beer with Daniel together and it was very important for me and that's why I feel okay about it.
"Of course, I'm not happy because I'm aware of my responsibility as well that we didn't get it to work. We were all so keen to get it to work. As I said before, there's so much respect within the team, also from my side towards Daniel."
At Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, who oversaw Ricciardo's years from HRT through to Toro Rosso and at the 'Senior' team where they won seven times together, said of his former driver's plight: "Formula 1 would miss him.
"He's a big character. He's a big personality, and I don't think I don't think we’re seeing the real Daniel Ricciardo at the moment. It'd be great to see him find his mojo again, and hopefully find a reasonable seat in F1 for next year," insisted Horner.
Truth is Ricciardo has never been a team as potent as Red Bull since his departure, in mediocre cars he is mediocre. Notably, he has only won one Grand Prix since 2018, the end of that year he departed for Renault.
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