Drive to Survive: F1 show finally reveals what really happened with Daniel Riciardo’s sacking

Drive to Survive has finally revealed how Daniel Ricciardo’s sacking by McLaren came to pass, with a shock swap in the works before his axing.

Daniel Ricciardo will spend 2023 as Red Bull’s reserve driver

McLaren attempted a straight Australian driver swap with Alpine in a last-ditch effort to mitigate the fallout of Oscar Piastri’s defection and keep Daniel Ricciardo in Formula 1.

On the hook for Ricciardo’s hefty payout after releasing the West Australian from his contract a year early, McLaren was staring down the barrel of possibly paying a US$5million fee to Alpine to secure Piastri as well.

Last August, Piastri infamously tweeted a rebuttal to Alpine’s announcement he would replace Fernando Alonso as the team’s full-time driver in 2023.

Alpine and McLaren went to court over who owned the legally binding contract to Piastri and the decision ultimately fell in favour of McLaren.

In a meeting between Brown and Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer at the Dutch Grand Prix, the latter revealed plans to sue Piastri for “unjust enrichment”- claiming the Aussie took Alpine’s time and money with no intention to provide a return on investment.

In scenes captured by Netflix cameras in the upcoming Drive to Survive season, Szafnauer declared Alpine had spent up to US$5million on moulding Piastri into a Formula 1 caliber driver and would seek reparations after his move to midfield rival McLaren.

“With all this Oscar stuff, although we lost Oscar, we think we have a good case in UK law. He shouldn’t have taken anything if he thought he didn’t have a contract (with Alpine),” Szafnauer told Brown.

Daniel Ricciardo will spend 2023 as Red Bull’s reserve driver

“If you know there is no contract and you take all the offerings the other party is giving, but you don’t give back what you’re supposed to give, then you need to give all the money back,” Szafnauer later told Drive to Survive.

The Alpine boss had earlier sung Piastri’s praises as someone who “can become a world champion” before blasting the Australian’s integrity after his defection to McLaren.

Piastri’s potential was discussed throughout the paddock, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner labelling him “the next Max Verstappen” – a major vote of confidence in the former Formula 3 and Formula 2 champion to draw comparison to the current king of Formula 1.

In a candid exchange between the two rival team bosses, Brown cautioned Szafnauer that suing Piastri would be a “PR disaster”.

Hinting at contractual obligations that would force McLaren to publicly support Piastri in any media battles, Brown told Szafnauer “his problems become my problems”; thus, the US$5million threat could land at his feet.

It led Brown to approach Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi with an olive branch offer, effectively engineering a driver swap, Ricciardo for Piastri, to appease both teams’ needs.

“I feel like I can help. Let’s close this thing out,” Brown told Rossi.

Oscar Piastri is starting his maiden F1 season with McLaren

“Daniel – I’d love to see him here (Alpine), but that’s only because I’d love to see him stay in the sport.”

Ultimately, Alpine chose not to pursue its threat to sue Piastri and instead landed Pierre Gasly to partner Esteban Ocon at the Entone outfit in 2023.

Gasly had always appeared the clubhouse leader over Ricciardo, perhaps in part to the Australian’s hasty exit from the team, formerly Renault, ahead of the 2021 season.

Haas’ interest in securing Ricciardo to replace the underperforming Mick Schumacher was short-lived, with team principal Guenther Steiner bemoaning to Kevin Magnussen, that the Australian was not affordable: “He wants 10-f----ing-million (dollars).”

One surprise candidate for Ricciardo’s services was another former team, Red Bull.

The Australian ultimately ended 2022 at Milton Keynes as its third driver, but there was a time early in the season when he was considered as a replacement for Sergio Perez.

In an early episode of the new Drive to Survive season, Horner speaks openly about Perez’s future at Red Bull and the pressure that comes with being a teammate of Verstappen.

Perez would go on to win the Monaco Grand Prix and clinch a two-year contract extension immediately after – but before that, Ricciardo was a name floated as a Perez replacement, should the Mexican have underperformed in 2022.