The Woking team announced on Wednesday that they would be parting ways with Ricciardo at the end of the season, after a disappointing time since joining forces at the start of 2021.
Although Ricciardo had another year to run on his original contract, McLaren felt a change was needed after a lack of results, and a termination deal was agreed with the Australian.
McLaren have their sights set on signing rising star Piastri as Lando Norris’ team-mate next year, but the youngster is locked in a contract dispute with the Alpine outfit.
Alpine believes it has a contract for Piastri, who is its reserve rider, to race next season. Piastri has been clear, however, that he has not signed anything and will not drive for the team in 2023 as he is understood to have a deal at McLaren.
With Alpine and McLaren adamant that their deals are watertight, it now looks like the matter will be decided by F1’s Contract Recognition Board.
McLaren has made no formal announcement about its plans for Piastri, and wanted to make sure the situation with Ricciardo took priority so he could go and secure a new ride elsewhere next year.
But speaking to select media outlets, including Motorsport.com, on Wednesday, McLaren CEO Zak Brown made it clear the team was confident about what it would do.
“Obviously we’re very confident about our future, which we’ll announce in due course,” Brown said.
“We want to go racing this weekend and the rest of the year, so we felt it was important to make the announcement today.
“It’s a very friendly and friendly relationship with Daniel, obviously disappointing that it ended this way, but we reflect on things like Monza. [Ricciardo’s victory in Italy in 2021] which is my personal most exciting moment of my entire time here at McLaren, being on the podium with Daniel and Lando.
“So yes, a disappointing result, but we are excited about the balance of the year as Daniel is, and we will announce our future in due course.”
Oscar Piastri, alpine reserve pilot
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl felt it was premature to discuss any potential risk in going for a rookie like Piastri over an experienced driver like Ricciardo.
“To be honest, I have no interest in getting into that comparison at the moment,” he said. “Today it’s about Daniel, and all weekend in Spa, it will be about Daniel.
“We want to move on. Daniel also wants to move forward on the topic we announced today. And as for the future, that’s something we talk about later.”
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