Formula 1 2023: Red Bull boss Christian Horner reveals Daniel Ricciardo was offered same terms as Max Verstappen to stay

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has opened up on details of Daniel Ricciardo’s first departure from Red Bull and why it was such a massive career mistake.

File Photo: Australian Driver Daniel Ricciardo Joins AlphaTauri For Remainder Of 2023 F1 Season – NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – JULY 11: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Oracle Red Bull Racing speaks with Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner as he prepares to drive during Formula 1 testing at Silverstone Circuit on July 11, 2023 in Northampton, England. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed Daniel Ricciardo was offered the same terms as Max Verstappen to stay at the team in 2018 before his departure to Renault, which the Australian later called to apologise for.

Opening up on the shock team switch which changed the trajectory of Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career, Horner said he initially thought the eight-time Grand Prix winner was “taking the piss” when he first told him he was leaving Red Bull to join Renault.

Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018 – as Verstappen’s star was rising – to join Renault where he spent two seasons before an ill-fated stint at McLaren.

The 34-year-old is now back in the Red Bull family, replacing the axed Nyck De Vries at AlphaTauri mid-year and will again suit up alongside Yuki Tsunoda for the sister squad next season with eyes on Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat in 2025.

Daniel Ricciardo and Christian Horner in 2018. Picture: Mark Thompson/Getty Images/AFP

Reflecting on Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull on the eff won with DRS podcast with Dax Shepherd, Horner revealed Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz had tried to persuade the Perth racer to stay by offering him the same terms as the young gun Verstappen.

“We gave Max a contract at the beginning of that year in 2018 to secure his future. Daniel, I remember being upset at the time. He suddenly felt that, ‘Hang on, I don’t want to be the support act here’,” Horner recalled.

“I could tell he was starting to think of being a bigger fish in a smaller pond. He got a lot of noise in his ear that this is the Max show. Money (from Renault) was also on the table.

“I remember I spoke to our owner Dietrich Mateschitz before the Austrian Grand Prix, and I said ‘It’s looking a bit marginal with Daniel, can you just show him some love? Because you know, Helmut (Marko), obviously very pro Max. But I think if you could just balance things out, just let him know that you want him.’

“(He said) ‘no problems. I’ll speak to him’. So he took him upstairs after the race in Austria and they were gone for well over an hour and then they re-emerged, they reappeared both with smiles on their faces.

“Dietrich comes up to me, I said, ‘Well, how did it go?’ And he said, ‘No problem. It’s not even a question’.

“I said ‘Well, what did you agree with him?’. He said, ‘I said we’ll give him whatever Max is on. I was like, ‘Wow, do you know what we pay Max?’

“And he went, ‘No, how much do we pay Max?’. I gave him the number and he said ‘Who the f**k agreed to that?’. And I said, ‘Well, you did’.

“He said, ‘No, he’s a great guy. Let’s do it. Let’s give him the same deal that Max has’.”

Max Verstappen with Daniel Ricciardo at the new Red Bull car launch. Picture: ED JONES / AFP

Horner said Ricciardo made the decision to move to the French squad despite the team’s efforts to secure his future at Red Bull, saying he was poorly advised at the time.

He revealed he initially thought Ricciardo was having him on when he told him he was going to leave the team to join Renault.

“Because Daniel’s got a sense of humour, I was convinced he’s taking the piss here,” Horner said of his initial reaction.

“You’re not going to Renault, stop f***ing about, just tell me when you are going to sign that contract’. So after about 10 minutes, he finally persuaded me that he was gonna go to Renault and it was disappointing.

“There was an element of (spite) at the time, thinking, ‘You know what? Okay. Go and suck on a lemon for a bit’.

“He was very badly advised in his earlier career. Everybody f***s up at some point.”

Christian Horner speaks with Daniel Ricciardo ahead of a practice session at the Monaco Grand Prix. Picture: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP

But Horner said Ricciardo later realised the mistake he had made in leaving Red Bull, where he claimed seven of his eight Grand Prix wins and twice finished third in the championship, later calling him during the pandemic to apologise.

“I think he recognised that he made a mistake. He had not good advice around him at the point that he left us,” Horner said.

“Having spent a few years outside of the family he suddenly realised that, ‘Whoa, actually what I had was really good’.

“Actually, it was during the pandemic I remember he called me and he said, ‘Christian, I hate to say this to you, but you were absolutely right, and I apologise’ and so on.”

ENDS