Let’s start with the initial connections that were made between Daniel and the Hass team after it became evident that Alpine and Daniel are not looking to make a reunion Hass has emerged as one of the best candidates for Daniel,It emerged that the team principal for Hass (Steiner) had contacted Ricciardo prior to the summer break saga but according to Steiner he was just testing out the drivers market which is something that all team principals do, he stressed that Hass needed to be careful in signing Daniel due to his fallen performance, “maybe we do not want Daniel why do you think he left Mcclaren, we need to be careful here, it’s not just about what we have done it’s about what we can do.” said Steiner but this was early in August, but recently we’ve heard Steiner comment that saying that Daniel has to decide for himself what he wants to do in the future on top of that Steiner added saying that if Daniel wanted to drive for Hass he would have called them. On the Hass team, we also have Mic Schumacher who is battling it out to retain his seat which is 50/50.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Christian Horner have been very vocal on this matter as they both share their personal opinions on whether Daniel Ricciardo should or shouldn’t have a seat in the 2023 F1 season. When asked whether Ricciardo is the best option for Mercedes and the reserve driver sit Hamilton said, “I think he’s far too talented and he’s earned the right to be amongst us all racing if he’s to be part of our team that would be great but a third role is not really what’s best for him, if I was managing him he’d be racing.” On the hand, Christian Horner said that he still doesn’t understand why Alpine and Ricciardo haven’t made the relationship happen yet and the team chose to focus on Pierre Gasly.”I probably would go with Ricciardo, to be honest with you, they obviously know him from a couple of seasons ago and he was very together during his last season there scoring podiums and I think he’s the type of guy you can rebuild,it’s obviously not been a great experience for him at Mclaren for whatever reason, but you just have to think back to some of the drives that he did for us some, of the wins he had , the podium and some of the stunning overtakes he was capable of,that is still there am sure he just needs a bit of a reset,you just don’t forget how to deliver so I hope for him he gets another opportunity and gets himself back on the grid for next year
DANIEL RICCIARDO spoke about his future saying that everything is open and that he doesn’t want to take anything for granted and that all of his options remain possible, yet he did accept that he might not be on the grid next year(2023)
There is one F1 Champion that doesn’t believe that Daniel should be considered for the Alpine seat, according to JACQUES VILLENEUVE having four bad consecutive bad seasons(2years at Renault and the other 2 at Mclaren) in F1 doesn’t do Ricciardo any good on his reputation. Jac also spoke of Daniel taking a sabbatical and having a come back in 2024.
With all that said it’s clear that Ricciardo future is still hanging in the air and one of the major obstacles to him joining a team like Hass and Williams is because his set to receive 15M dollars from Mclaren in the buyout agreement and these two teams have nowhere near that budget to offer Ricciardo, Alpine is the only team that can offer Daniel such an amount but some will argue that he is not in a position to negotiate.
What do you think will happen to Ricciardo’s fate in F1? Will he sign for Williams or Haas, go on a break, or be a reserve driver for Mercedes or Red Bull? And most of all, what will the 2023 season F1 grid look like?
Rising F1 analyst๐ฅ๐ฏ
4by4 devotee
palvin@spaceyamagari.com
