Where does Daniel Ricciardo go next after McLaren?

F1

It's now official: this season will be Daniel Ricciardo's last with McLaren. He's been linked to a US move, but Chris Medland says another seat on the F1 grid could fit him perfectly

Daniel Ricciardo portrait

Grand Prix Photo

Sometimes Formula 1 teams are good at keeping their cards close to their chest. Other times, there are announcements that are talked about for weeks before you see the actual official news, and then realise they haven’t actually been announced in the first place.

Daniel Ricciardo’s departure from McLaren falls into the latter of those two categories, with the Australian driver understood to have been in talks regarding an early termination of his contract for some time before confirmation today.

He’s one of the most popular drivers on the grid – a position often attributed to his presence in the Netflix documentary Drive to Survive but in reality that was just a wider audience getting to see more of a down-to-earth, honest and relatable driver who somehow combined his ability to connect with almost anyone on a human level with driving a Formula 1 car extremely fast. Until he joined McLaren.

OK, that’s a little unfair, because Ricciardo still drives a Formula 1 car extremely fast (he did win in Monza last year after all), but perhaps not quite as fast as his less experienced team-mate Lando Norris, and certainly not as fast as McLaren has been wanting him to drive it over the past 18 months. He was obviously not signed to play a very distant second fiddle and attribute far fewer points than Norris…

The reasons for the failed partnership are multiple and of course can be attributed to both sides in various ways, but whatever the reasons it has been very clear for weeks that Ricciardo’s time with McLaren has not lived up to expectations and was set to end.

ACT

Ricciardo [right] was beaten comfortably by Norris [left] in the 2021 championship and after 13 rounds in 2022, he currently trails his team-mate by 57 points

So the big question for the 33-year-old now is what does he do next?

You don’t need me to tell you that Ricciardo would be an absolute superstar if he were to walk into any other racing series, and there are multiple that would gladly welcome the eight-time grand prix winner with open arms. But it’s the grand prix bit that is still likely to be the overwhelming pull.

For one, Ricciardo might have a love of Dale Earnhardt and suggested it would be cool to race in America – a country he has a huge affinity with – at some stage in his career, but not at this stage. Ricciardo has previously admitted that “ovals creep me out a little bit”, and before he considers overcoming those fears to attack an IndyCar or NASCAR season, he can still get numerous offers from F1 teams at once. And there’s a significant factor that I often overlook when searching for the best home for a driver in the motorsport ladder: money.

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That’s not to say Ricciardo is overly motivated by his bank balance by any stretch, but as it was pointed out to me by a member of a midfield F1 team recently, it’s easy to forget just how lucrative an uncompetitive seat on the grid can be, and a driver who can attract the sort of salary that Ricciardo can is only able to do so for a limited time. So would you really forgo that return to go and be a bigger fish in a smaller pond (however competitive, challenging and thrilling the racing is) for a much lower wage? Perhaps not.

But it is competitive fire that drives so many of the star names that have a long career on the F1 grid, and Ricciardo is no different. Despite a multi-million-pound pay-off being likely, his eventual departure from McLaren will sting, even if the exit talks might not have been totally unexpected, and so he will be keen for an opportunity to prove Zak Brown, Andreas Seidl et al, wrong.

The likes of Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams still have seats available that could technically be destinations for Ricciardo, but despite quick cars at two of the three, none seem to have the potential to realistically fight any higher than McLaren and Alpine in the coming few years. They are very much outside options.

So, to make McLaren rue its decisions is likely going to require a return to a team where he previously risked burning bridges, but fortunately for Ricciardo the dynamic has changed. When he left Red Bull for Renault, Ricciardo was the proud acquisition of Cyril Abiteboul, and he duly repaid that faith with two years of very solid results in a car that was rarely a threat to the top three teams.

CEL

Ricciardo scored a couple of podiums in his final season at Renault and was a top acquisition for McLaren at the time

When the driver left for McLaren, Abiteboul was hurt and even lashed out slightly with his comments at the time, but the Frenchman has long since departed Alpine and under Laurent Rossi and Otmar Szafnauer the team needs a win.

It might still get it by proving it has a valid contract with Oscar Piastri, of course, but that’s more likely to be a financial victory that would lead to discussions with McLaren to find a mutually agreeable solution. For a sporting one, what better riposte to the past few months than to take the driver McLaren deemed an unsalvageable project and turn around his fortunes to the detriment of his former team?

Until the Piastri situation is solved, Alpine is of course not going to announce the signing of any other driver. It needs to stand firm where its reserve driver is concerned and see through its attempts to keep hold of him. He’s an exciting talent after all.

But surely the management team at Enstone knows that re-signing Ricciardo and trying to make McLaren regret its call has the potential to be a win-win for both sides should the younger Australian be confirmed as having a future elsewhere.

From Ricciardo’s perspective, it might seem like a backward step to return to the team he didn’t deem his best hope of future success just two years ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the best option on the table to try and improve the outlook for his F1 career right now.

You couldn’t blame him for wanting a fresh start elsewhere, but the Alpine drive is likely to be the most competitive seat available to Ricciardo in F1, and if proving people wrong is foremost in his mind then he’s likely to want it.