Seemingly unwanted F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was close to joining Alpine this season after he was made surplus to requirements at McLaren, it has emerged. Alpine boss Laurent Rossi seriously contemplated signing the 33-year-old, who was released from McLaren with a year left on his contract.
In an effort to mitigate the bombshell, McLaren chief executive Zak Brown had approached Alpine with a plan to swap drivers: in return for Piastri joining McLaren, Ricciardo would be released to Alpine.
The move for Ricciardo was tied in with the destination of fellow Australian driver Oscar Piastri. Alpine announced the Melbourne-based 21-year-old as a driver for 2023 – only for the young gun to declare on Twitter he had not signed with the French outfit and later joined McLaren.
The plan was revealed in a soon-to-be released episode of the F1 documentary series Drive to Survive. ‘I feel like I can help. Let’s close this thing out,’ Brown told Rossi in a soon to be revealed episode of Drive to Survive.
American team Haas also showed interest in securing Ricciardo, only to be priced out of the pursuit. Also revealed in Drive to Survive, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner told driver Kevin Magnussen the Australian was well out of their price range.
‘Daniel – I’d love to see him here (Alpine) but that’s only because I’d love to see him stay in the sport.’ However the plan did not come to fruition and Ricciardo returned to Red Bull as a reserve driver.
Instead of signing Ricciardo, Haas secured experienced driver Nico Hulkenberg to fill the seat vacated by Mick Schumacher. The 2023 F1 season begins with the first race in Bahrain on March 5.
‘He (Ricciardo) wants ten f***ing million (dollars),’ Steiner stated bluntly. Ricciardo will earn a staggering amount of money in 2023 despite not getting a race seat. His combined package from Red Bull and the contracted money owing from McLaren was reportedly $24million.
