McLaren keeps money after buying out Ricciardo

Ricciardo can leave

At the end of 2022 the partnership between McLaren and Ricciardo will end. The eight-time race winner was never a great success at McLaren and so McLaren decided to end the contract of the Australian prematurely. While many thought that this would have cost McLaren a lot of money, it turns out that this was not the case.

F1 journalist Saward reports that he has heard that Ricciardo would get another sixteen million dollars in 2023 from McLaren if he had finished his contract. However, the parties have reportedly agreed on a ten million dollar buyout. This saves McLaren six million in driver budget, which will go a long way towards bringing in Oscar Piastri.

Contract of Piastri

Piastri and McLaren are still waiting for official approval from the Contract Recognition Board, but the Australian driver is expected to win that case from Alpine. Piastri would have signed a contract for 2022 in November, but not a long-term deal. Alpine would rely on a mutual declaration that they would work together for a longer period, but that verbal agreement is not binding.

That means McLaren has the lineup with Lando Norris and Piastri completed for 2023. Alpine must look for a replacement. Pierre Gasly seems to be a great candidate, but the Frenchman still needs to be loosened up at Red Bull and there are doubts about his relationship with Esteban Ocon. Mick Schumacher has also been mentioned, but the question is whether he will be considered good enough while Ferrari and Haas would like to terminate his contract. Alpine junior and F2 driver Jack Doohan has also been named as a candidate to succeed Fernando Alonso.