Daniel Ricciardo saw an early termination of his McLaren contract amidst the chaos that saw the Woking-based team sign Alpine’s reserve driver Oscar Piastri.
Caught in the crossfire, Piastri was one of the few who came under the spotlight of negative public opinion.
But even though the Honeybadger lost his seat, he let his compatriot know that there were no hard feelings between them.
Ricciardo revealed on the Australian GP’s In The Fast Lane podcast that he ‘felt’ for Piastri and said that while he did get caught in the crossfire, it was not something that the young Australian had created.
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Daniel Ricciardo made a phone call to Oscar Piastri
The 33-year-old Australian, despite his own problems and heartbreak regarding his future in the sport, made a call to Piastri.
The young Australian described the honeybadger’s gesture as classy and truly professional. Ricciardo said that he was aware of some of the comments and stuff that was going towards Piastri.
Piastri revealed that he was planning on getting in touch himself but was unsure if Ricciardo wanted to hear from him.
Looking at Piastri’s situation in the matter, the 8-GP winner said that getting into F1 is a big moment, it’s a dream come true and if it can’t be enjoyed or celebrated then ‘it’s a bit of a shame.’
Mark Webber was just doing his job
Furthermore, Ricciardo who lost his $15 Million per year job with McLaren at the end of the 2022 season said that he doesn’t have any grudges against Piastri’s manager and Former F1 driver Mark Webber either.
The Honeybadger, who has now signed a third driver role with the Red Bull team, said that Mark did his job by placing his driver in an F1 seat.
“I get how people were like, you’re doing that to another Aussie, blah, blah, but I certainly didn’t view it like that, we’re all just trying to do the best we could,” Ricciardo said.
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