Daniel Ricciardo is reportedly seeking a whopping eight-figure payout to walk away from his contract with McLaren.
The 33-year-old veteran has become embroiled in F1’s mid-year silly season following reports he is being replaced by fellow Australian Oscar Piastri at McLaren in 2023.
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The news erupted last week after Fernando Alonso blindsided the F1 world when he jumped into Sebastian Vettel’s vacated seat at Aston Martin for 2023.
Alpine then announced Piastri would be the man to replace Alonso, only for the Melburnian to reject the seat — a bold move for a man who is yet to drive in F1.
Now Ricciardo has asked for a $21 million payout from McLaren for the early termination of his contract, according to Speedcafe.com.
Ricciardo is said to be the only party who can break his contract with the team, which expires at the end of 2023.
The report also states that should Ricciardo secure a drive at another team next season, any salary he receives would see the same value refunded to McLaren.
A payout would clear the way for McLaren to sign Piastri and for Ricciardo to continue his F1 career elsewhere on the grid.
Alpine reportedly did not have a valid long-term F1 contract with its reserve driver Piastri, which has allowed McLaren’s deal with the 21-year-old to be ticked off by the Contract Recognition Board.
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Ricciardo has remained tight-lipped and doesn’t appear bothered by the ongoing saga.
He is clearly enjoying his mid-season break and this week posted a photo of himself smiling in a swimming pool.
If Piastri does indeed take his place at McLaren, Ricciardo’s most likely landing spot would be Alpine, the French team formerly known as Renault where he spent two seasons in 2019 and 2020.
Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer slammed Piastri in a blistering spray over the weekend.
“I expected more loyalty from Oscar than he is showing,” the Alpine team principal told Spanish publication The confidential.
“I started in 1989 in Formula 1 and I’ve never seen anything like this. And it’s not about Formula 1, it’s about integrity as a human being.
“It could happen in ice hockey or soccer, it doesn’t matter. But you don’t do that. He signed a piece of paper, a document, saying he would do something different.
“For me, the way I grew up, I don’t need to sign a piece of paper and then have someone say, ‘You’re lying, because you signed this.’ For me, if you say, ‘Hey, help me, I’ll help you tomorrow,’ there’s no way I would go back on my word. No way.”
“He should (drive with the) team that has taken care of him, that has taken him to the world championship and, above all, that during the last year has put him in a Formula 1 car so that he would be ready, so that he would know the circuits,” Szafnauer added.
“You did everything I asked you to do (from Alpine to Piastri) and now I promise you that if you do this, I will do this. I don’t need a piece of paper where it says, ‘With a clause, I can get out of here’.
“There should be some loyalty to the fact that we have invested literally millions and millions of euros to prepare him. So I don’t understand it either, you should ask him.”
Despite appearing to botch his contract, Szafnauer said Alpine will play hardball in a bid to hold on to Piastri.
“We have a contract with Piastri, which he signed in November, we have spoken to our lawyers and they have told us that this is a binding contract, so part of that contract allows us to put Oscar in one of our cars in 2023, which is the reason we issued the press release,” he said.
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