McLaren’s $11 Million Losses Linked to Daniel Ricciardo Departing Prematurely

McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo parted ways at the end of the 2022 season, a year before the Aussie’s contract was supposed to run out. While, practically, this was a good decision for McLaren owing to Ricciardo’s struggles on the track, it did affect them in some way financially. As per a report released by Speedcafe, the British company suffered up to $11 million in operational losses, the cause of which could be Ricciardo’s premature departure.

Speedcafe reports that earlier this year, McLaren posted an operational loss of approximately $11 million. In 2021, their loss was more than $33 million so it is an improvement. The same reports also point towards the fact that Ricciardo’s departure one year before his contract ended contributed to this.

Since Ricciardo left Woking in 2022, McLaren had to buy him out of his contract. This did not come cheap, as the honey badger received close to $20 million. McLaren, however, will not sweat too much about what they lost. Especially because of the talent they have out on track at the moment.

Daniel Ricciardo replacement working wonders for McLaren

After a long-fought battle with Alpine, Oscar Piastri chose to join McLaren in 2023. Together with Lando Norris, Ricciardo’s young compatriot and replacement is now working wonders for the team.

He even racked up his first ever F1 win in the form of a P1 finish at the Qatar GP sprint. Widely considered to be one of the best rookies to grace an F1 track in recent memory, the future looks bright for Piastri.

So far, he has two podium finishes this season and is currently P9 in the standings with 87 points to his name. McLaren is a team that is also making huge strides, and many expect them to challenge for wins in the coming season.

Ricciardo meanwhile, took a short hiatus, but returned midway into the season, replacing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.