$10 Million Reasons Why Daniel Ricciardo Kept His Head up Even Though He Knew His Time at McLaren Was Up

Daniel Ricciardo would happily put his McLaren career in the past. The Australian spent two disastrous years with the Papaya team, and at the end of it all, he was shown the door. Even though this may have hurt his pride and reputation, he didn’t leave the team completely empty-handed.

In hindsight, Ricciardo admittedly knew his McLaren fate. It couldn’t have been easy, but he swallowed his pride as the Woking-based team mutually terminated his contract. But the Honey Badger exacted his pound of flesh. In return for the humiliation, McLaren generously paid him a sum of $10.3 million.

According to the Australian, though, he knew what was in store for him. While speaking to AMuS, he said, “A slight suspicion was already there. I could see my results and was not satisfied with them myself. And we ran out of ideas on how to change that. I could no longer be sure whether the contract would be fulfilled until the end.” [translated via Google Translate]

“There was already the premonition that something would be brewing. The two seasons just weren’t good enough. And the team began to have more and more doubts.”

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What ensued with McLaren would have definitely left a bad taste in the mouth for Ricciardo. That being said, at least in the media, an ex-Formula 1 driver was being called out for committing a bigger betrayal on Ricciardo than McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo opens up on Mark Webber’s role in the McLaren fiasco

Even before McLaren announced that Ricciardo would be leaving the team at the end of 2022, everyone knew he was being replaced by fellow Australian Oscar Piastri. But who was behind it all? Piastri’s manager, and ex-F1 star, Mark Webber. Now Ricciardo has finally spoken up about how he feels about his fellow Australian’s role in the whole McLaren situation.

Ricciardo told the Fast Lane Podcast, “He (Piastri) was in the situation, but it’s not like he created the situation. Of course Mark has a job to do as well, trying to find his driver a seat. I get how people were like, ‘Oh, you know, doing that to another Aussie!’, and blah, blah, blah, but I certainly didn’t view it like that or take it as it seemed from the outside.”

“We were all just trying to do the best we could.”

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Now that Ricciardo is back at Red Bull, can he get one last chance to show McLaren what they’ve just lost?