By Matthew Clayton
Daniel Ricciardo’s troubled tenure at Formula 1 team McLaren will finish at the end of the 2022 season, with compatriot Oscar Piastri set to take his place at the British team after Ricciardo and McLaren reached a multimillion-dollar settlement to end Ricciardo’s contract a year early.
Ahead of this weekend’s resumption of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix, Ricciardo and McLaren mutually agreed to terminate the 33-year-old’s option over a 2023 deal with the team, with terms not disclosed.
Daniel Ricciardo will part ways with McLaren at the end of the season.Credit:Eddie Jim
F1 paddock sources suggest McLaren’s decision to sever ties with the eight-time grand prix winner will cost the team upwards of $24 million, accounting for Ricciardo’s 2023 salary and potential additional earnings from performance bonuses.
McLaren is expected to imminently announce Piastri, the 2021 Formula 2 and 2020 Formula 3 champion who is contracted to rival F1 outfit Alpine as a test and reserve driver, for the 2023 season.
Piastri’s pathway to McLaren remains dependent on F1’s Contracts Recognition Board overturning an agreement Alpine insists is watertight for 2023 and 2024.
The 21-year-old was previously announced as an Alpine race driver for next season in the wake of Fernando Alonso’s defection to Aston Martin earlier in August. However, Piastri immediately issued a strong denial via social media that he had signed with the French outfit, with subsequent reports emerging that Piastri’s management team, headed by former Australian driver Mark Webber, had been working behind the scenes to place the Melbourne-born racer elsewhere on the 2023 grid.
Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri.Credit:The Age
Alpine, for whom Ricciardo drove when it was badged as Renault in 2019-20, looks to be his only viable option to remain on the grid for a 12th season in 2023. Ricciardo announced he was leaving Renault for a multi-year McLaren deal before the 2020 season, delayed by COVID-19, began, but took the team’s first two podiums in a decade and finished fifth in the drivers’ championship before his ill-fated move to McLaren.
