Red Bull Cleverly Ensure McLaren Are $18,000,000 Poorer as Dominos From Daniel Ricciardo’s Fall

F1 is all about small differences that make a lot of change. Take the example of Red Bull last season, where the catering budget was one of the reasons they went over the cost cap limit. Zak Brown recently announced that McLaren made changes to the catering to stay inside the cost cap. However, as the Dominos from Daniel Ricciardo’s fall one after another, Red Bull ensures that McLaren is $18 Million poorer. What did Red Bull do to ensure this?

McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo mutually decided to end the Australian contract last year after a miserable 2-year stint at the Papaya Team. However, McLaren had to pay $18 million to Daniel Ricciardo as severance for ending his contract a year earlier and not having a seat for 2023. However, the Honey Badger recently joined AlphaTauri as Nyck de Vries got the boot. What implications does it have on severance?

@enginemode11 wondered about the same question as he took to Twitter looking for answers. A part of his Tweet was “Does the severance package he got from McLaren have any clauses about getting a full-time seat in 2023” It wasn’t long before people came up with their own theories and assumptions with the most logical one making a lot of sense. 

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Someone responded by explaining how he technically doesn’t have a full-time seat yet, but just a temporary one. We’ve already heard the Red Bull people using the word “loaned to AlphaTauri”. Simply put, Ricciardo has been sent out on loan by Red Bull, who technically still employed him as a third driver. As a result, McLaren won’t be able to request or push changes to the severance, leaving them $18 Million poorer.

Daniel Ricciardo to miss out on a major chunk of $2,000,000 Red Bull contract

After McLaren pushed Ricciardo away, Red Bull decided to welcome him back home. The Australian is a very popular figure amongst the fans. Red Bull was reportedly paying Ricciardo 2 million dollars a year for his Third Driver role. However, there was even more money to be made by the Australian, as he also was an ambassador for the team and went to multiple marketing and PR events. 

But now as Daniel Ricciardo joins AlphaTauri on loan, he misses out on major chunks from the Red Bull contract. His loan and contract details aren’t out yet and we don’t know how much Alpha Tauri will be paying the Honey Badger.

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What do you think about Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo’s smart tactics to label the AlphaTauri move as a loan?