Formula One 2022: Daniel Ricciardo snubbed a ‘stratospheric offer’ from Red Bull

F1 drivers rely on their split-second timing, but Daniel Ricciardo’s could not have been worse when he split with Red Bull. His former boss reflects on the career-changing call.

Daniel Ricciardo’s decision to knock back a “stratospheric offer” and leave the Red Bull set-up that had introduced him to Formula One was “spectacularly bad timing”, the team’s principal Christian Horner says.

Horner, speaking exclusively to The Weekend Australian ahead of next weekend’s return of F1 racing to Albert Park in Melbourne after a three-year Covid-inflicted absence, believes Riccardo has floundered since leaving Red Bull and may be losing confidence in his current set up at McLaren because of the brilliance of his younger teammate Lando Norris.

Horner has also backed the sacked Australian race official, former technical director Michael Masi, who was made a scapegoat for the controversial and chaotic world championship decider last year.

Masi, 44, made a decision to allow a final lap of racing in the Abu Dhabi finale after the safety car was deployed. The decision gave Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the opportunity to overtake Mercedes’ defending world champion Lewis Hamilton to claim the drivers’ title.

The sports governing body FIA later ruled Masi’s judgment was made in “good faith” but that “human error” played a part, and they changed the rules for the 2022 season preventing broadcasting of communications between the teams and the race director.

“I personally felt that it wasn’t right for him to have been removed from that position, it was harsh on him”, Horner says, believing the rules at the time were not clear and that the race director did not have the same data that many of the teams look at.

Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and McLaren waves to the crowd

INSIGHT TO RICCIARDO

As for the other, more well known Australian in the sport, Horner has a unique insight into Riccardo’s big personality.

He nurtured Ricciardo through the secondary F1 team Toro Rosso, and then promoted him to replace fellow Australian Mark Webber and join then four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull seats in 2014.

Riccardo left Red Bull in 2018, despite inspiring wins in Shanghai and Monaco in that season, to join Renault, a decision that raised eyebrows in the F1 paddock, because at the time the French team was struggling at the back of the pack.

Horner said that Red Bull had wanted to keep the Australian and had “put offers in front of him that were stratospheric” but “Daniel could see Max (Verstappen) in the ascendancy and he didn’t want to become the second driver’’.

But adds Horner: “His timing was spectacularly bad because obviously, he had doubts about the Honda engine (which Red Bull were contractually obliged to use) and then (Honda) went on to prove there it was a competitive power unit and a race winning package.’’

Horner, speaking from the sprawling Red Bull complex has interpreted Ricciardo’s eighth place last year in the drivers’ championship and a humdrum start to 2022 as a confidence issue.

Daniel Ricciardo was wrong to leave Red Bull, says Christian Horner

IS HE A NO 2 DRIVER NOW?

Ricciardo is now 32 and his 22-year-old teammate Norris finished sixth in the same car.

Because of fresh interest from several teams, Norris has had a huge salary upgrade, and now earns more than Ricciardo’s reported $17 million a year.

“Daniel is a great driver and we were sad when he decided to leave the team here,’’ says Horner.

“And, you know it’s unfortunately not worked out for him the way he would have liked and he’s a great driver.

“He’s got great natural abilities, a big personality. Of course now he’s got a competitive teammate as well. It’s given him a hard time and you know, that’s tough for him.’’

Many aspects of Formula One have altered in the past three years – including a radical new car design that has seen overtaking become a more common feature. Formula One bosses also wanted to reign in the big spending in an attempt to equalise the competition.

The teams have been given a spending cap of $US140m for the year, a figure Horner describes as “quite painful”.

He wants to spend much more, to something that is “sensible”.

He says: “We have to make the most of what we have. And of course, this year’s cost cap is going to be quite painful. So we have to be very efficient how we develop the car. It is very tough, particularly with an all new car, every single component is brand new. So it’s a significant challenge.

“And you can’t amortise things over the years. So even if we carry the chassis over into next year, it doesn’t save us money this year.

“So it’s a big challenge for the whole business.”

F1 REACTS WRONGLY TO Covid

With inflation going though the roof and freight costs escalating, Horner is arguing that the current spending limits were a knee-jerk reaction during the pandemic and the world is now very different.

But some of the smaller teams believe the caps will bring the field much closer together and by the end of 2023 there will be only a $10m to $20m difference between the top and bottom teams.

Horner says he is looking forward to returning to Melbourne because the reception from Australian fans is “fantastic”. Even with the race pushed back to be the third on the calendar, instead of being the usual season opener, Horner says the race is ‘’one of the highlights of the calendar”.

The Albert Park track has been modified, and corner six in particular has been widened to become a speedy right hand sweeper.

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, who led last weekend’s race in Saudi Arabia before a pit stop and then a safety car cost him the lead, was in the simulator this week getting used to the Albert Park track and Horner was amazed.

“It is proper-fast,’’he says. Analysts say the track will be at least five seconds a lap faster.

Originally published as Formula One 2022: Daniel Ricciardo snubbed a ‘stratospheric offer’ from Red Bull