Ricciardo settles lawsuit over reported $18m dispute

Aussie Formula 1 star Daniel Ricciardo has released a statement confirming his $18 million lawsuit has been settled out of court.

Daniel Ricciardo reached a settlement.

Daniel Ricciardo has confirmed he has agreed to pay his former agent an undisclosed amount after settling their lawsuit dispute on Thursday.

Ricciardo was rocked by the claims of former Australian manager Glenn Beavis in July when the lawsuit was lodged with the London High Court.

The lawsuit stated Beavis was entitled to 20 per cent of Ricciardo’s base salary and other contractually negotiated payments — a combined amount of around $18 million.

Beavis released a statement to announce the two parties had reached an “amicable settlement”.

Ricciardo also released a statement to declare the matter ended “sweeter than it looked a couple months ago”.

“All done. We’ve put a fork in it. It is all sorted, settled,” Ricciardo said, according to autosport.com.

“I can’t go into details, but we both met and it has been done and put to bed. And not in a bad way or anything.

“It ended a lot sweeter than it looked a couple of months ago.

Daniel Ricciardo seems pretty comfortable with it.

“I think up until now it didn’t really weigh on me but if it continued and had gone another year or two down the track, then for sure it would have eventually been something I didn’t need. Even if sometimes you think something’s not distracting you, it could be, so I’m happier to put it behind me.

“It’s not something we wanted. It wasn’t comfortable, I guess. I think [we are] both relieved.”

Beavis’ claim argued he was owed approximately $18m for “various sums due in accordance with the commission agreed between the parties”.

Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018 and made the shock decision to join Renault on a two-year deal. Reports circulated in the British press earlier this year claiming Ricciardo’s salary was nudging $50 million but the West Australian rubbished those suggestions.

Ricciardo’s lawyer Jeremy Courtenay-Stamp of The Ebury Partnership told the BBC at the time there was “no merit” to Beavis’ claim.

“Daniel’s position is very clear — there is no merit whatsoever in relation to this claim and we are going to defend it absolutely fully,” Courtenay-Stamp said.

Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo.

“You’ll have only seen his claim so far. You won’t have seen our defence because it hasn’t been filed. But it will be filed and it will entirely refute the claim that Beavis is making.”

Beavis filed his lawsuit earlier in July, claiming the arrangement he had with Ricciardo saw him earn a 20 per cent commission on deals which he took care of.

As reported by Motorsport.com and the BBC, Beavis claims he started discussions with Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul in 2017 about Ricciardo leaving Red Bull and joining the French team. The switch was finalised in August last year and Beavis reportedly believes he is entitled to commissions related to that deal.

Beavis’ lawsuit claims Ricciardo said he wanted to end their working relationship last December but Beavis continued in his role for several more months to sort through “outstanding matters … including negotiating the long form of the Renault driver contracts”.

That “long form” contract was finalised on March 7 — shortly before the season-opening grand prix in Melbourne — and Beavis claims he worked for Ricciardo until March 31 before they ended their professional relationship.