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Daniel Ricciardo says he didn’t know McLaren had already signed Oscar Piastri on a two-year deal on 4 July, a month before the team issued him notice that it intended to sack him for 2023.
Piastri’s contract with McLaren was validated by the FIA’s contract recognition board on Friday after Alpine claimed it still had rights to the young Australian, who is a member of its young driver academy.
The board’s statement revealed McLaren had lodged a contract covering the 2023 and 2024 seasons signed on 4 July, the Monday after the British Grand Prix.
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Ricciardo was told after the Hungarian Grand Prix on 31 July that the team intended to replace him, and his contract wasn’t terminated until last week.
Speaking in the Netherlands on Friday evening after the CRB’s announcement, Ricciardo said he didn’t know that Piastri had already been contracted to McLaren for the month before the mid-season break.
“To be honest, on the date, that’s the first I’ve heard,” he told Sky Sports. “I’m not aware of obviously time lines and this and that, what the team’s discussing.
“In terms of time lines — also I guess what the team does preparing Oscar — that’s not also my business in terms of what day they spoke, this or that.
“If that’s the case, then so be it. It’s not really my decision to make.”
He admitted, however, that talks about his performance had been ongoing for months.
“To be honest, already before that date, let’s say months, we were already discussing not my future but of course where we could improve to try to have a better future with the team.
“I’m aware there were going to be talks ongoing.”
Speaking to reporters at the Dutch Grand Prix, McLaren principal Andreas Seidl denied there’d been any underhandedness in his contract dealings.
“Obviously we don’t go into the detail of what was in the contract that we signed with Oscar,” he said. “Regarding Daniel, as we have communicated last week, I think throughout this year Zak (Brown, CEO) and myself together with Daniel had an open and transparent dialogue at any time of where we both are.
“Therefore there is no issue in that aspect.”
Both Seidl and Brown had been vocally supportive of Ricciardo in the week before and after Piastri’s 4 July signature.
Asked by Fox Sports in the week of the British Grand Prix whether Ricciardo would see out his contract with McLaren, Brown replied: “Oh yeah.
“We love working with him. He loves the team. We’ve seen when we give him a car that’s capable of winning, he can win in it.”
But Ricciardo had one of his season-worst performances at Silverstone, qualifying 14th and finishing second-last ahead of only Yuki Tsunoda’s damaged AlphaTauri. Lando Norris qualified and finished sixth.
Speculation about the Australian’s tenure with McLaren, which had already been a major storyline at that point, hit fever pitch afterwards, prompting Ricciardo to issue a social media post insisting that he would see out his contract.
“I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and am not walking away from the sport,” he said. “Appreciate it hasn’t always been easy, but who wants easy! I’m working my ass off with the team to make improvements and get the car right and back to the front where it belongs.
“I still want this more than ever.”
Seidl echoed Ricciardo’s commitment, saying in the following week that, “From our point of view, there was never any speculation required.
“We have been clear from our side that we have a contract in place, and our sole focus is together with Daniel on finding these last percentages in terms of performance.
“That is what we are focusing on. The statement wasn’t a surprise, it was just confirming where we both are together, which is in line with what we say for several months.”
It has been suggested that McLaren had originally signed a one-plus-one deal with Piastri as a reserve driver with an option to convert it into a race deal once Ricciardo’s situation had been clarified.
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