McLaren has announced that Daniel Ricciardo will not drive for the team after the 2022 season with no further update on the Australian’s future.
McLaren has issued a statement saying that Daniel Ricciardo will no longer drive for the Woking-based team after the 2022 season.
The Australian is now free to drive for whoever he wants in the 2023 season. The drivers market is shaken up in the silly season with a lot of speculation surrounding Ricciardo’s move to Alpine replacing Fernando Alonso who moved to Aston Martin to replace Sebastian Vettel.
Reports suggested that the Honey Badger has also been approached by the Haas F1 team. Meanwhile, there are talks about McLaren signing Oscar Piastri to replace Ricciardo.
The talks about Ricciardo’s departure from McLaren have been in the news recently. Reports also suggested that since the 8 GP winner has a contract with the Woking-based team till 2023, Ricciardo is the only party to have the right to cancel his contract with McLaren.
In case an early departure is agreed upon, the team are supposed to pay Ricciardo a sum of $21 Million.
It seems like the British team chose the option to pay the Australian out of their lineup instead of going ahead with him for yet another season.
Daniel Ricciardo says “This isn’t it for me”
Right after McLaren issued the statement about Ricciardo’s departure from the team on its Twitter account, the Australian himself uploaded a video for the fans as well.
In the video, the 33-year-old informed the fans about his departure and shared some of his best memories in two years with McLaren including the win in Monza 2021.
He admitted that his performance has not been at its best with the McLaren team. While the Australian himself is not sure about his career in F1 beyond 2022 he said that this is not it for him.
He still has the same love for the sport despite everything and the same fire in him to win.
