McLaren Make a Huge Offer to Daniel Ricciardo

The king of the market right now, Daniel Ricciardo is no out of options at the moment. He’s linked with the Mercedes seat of Valtteri Bottas and the Ferrari seat of Kimi Raikkonen while Red Bull also have shown their eagerness to retain him. With Red Bull ditching Renault for Honda for the next two years, Ricciardo will keep in mind what comes with Honda Power Units.

Now if reports are to be believed, a new player has come up and shown eagerness to sign Ricciardo. As reported by German media outlet Sports Build, McLaren have offered a $20 million contract to the Aussie, which will be more than triple his current salary with Red Bull.

With delays going on with Ricciardo’s signing, Red Bull have been growing restless asking him to make a final call at the earliest possible. His delay in decision making is directly linked with what Hamilton is doing, as quoted by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko himself.

“Ricciardo doesn’t want to sign until Hamilton has signed,” Marko said. “It’s a bit strange. Hopefully it ends soon.”

Ricciardo has had a tremendous season so far with two victories in the 7 races so far, including the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix, which he won despite being low on power. Considering both Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen are at the end of their contracts by this year, how Ricciardo performs will definitely affect their ability to retain their respective seats.

Toto Wolff has, in the past shown interest in Ricciardo as well. Earlier quoted as not looking for someone outside the Mercedes academy, he later clarified that if they were to look anywhere outside, his preference will be Daniel Ricciardo.

“I only said that we are loyal first of all to our drivers. They are Lewis, Valtteri and the Mercedes young drivers. They come first.

“But if we were to look at others, Daniel is definitely among them.” 

McLaren themselves are rumored to ditch Vandoorne next year. Whether Alonso stays in F1 or not, is still a mystery, with rumors linking him to a full time IndyCar career as early as next year.