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(Motorsport-Total.com) – Despite Corona’s period of no race crisis, Formula 1 is going very fast. After ‘Motorsport-Total.com’ exclusively announced Sebastian Vettel’s departure from Ferrari on Monday night and Carlos Sainz’s switch to Scuderia on Wednesday morning, the next prominent driver transfer is now certain: Daniel Ricciardo He will change from his current employer Renault to McLaren in 2021.
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On Wednesday, several German-language internet portals agreed that Sebastian Vettel would take over the McLaren booth from Sainz. Not least because of his connection to team boss Andreas Seidl, whom he knows and appreciates of Formula 1 at BMW. But the Vettel-McLaren stories have now turned out to be wrong.
As late as Monday night, there was evidence that Ricciardo could become Lando Norris’ new teammate at McLaren. Italian journalist Leo Turrini later reported Wednesday in a radio interview. Later, the ‘BBC’ got on the train. However, they reported that there is still “no final agreement.” At the time, this was no longer correct.
According to information from ‘Motorsport-Total.com’, Ricciardo Renault officially reported on Wednesday morning that he will not renew his contract, which expires in late 2020. The firm under McLaren’s contract is already dry. An official confirmation of the transfer is expected in the course of Thursday.
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For now, McLaren, confronted with the ‘Motorsport-Total.com’ investigation, is covered. Contractual matters are generally not discussed, it is said upon request. The British team does not comment on Sainz’s immediate departure to Ferrari, according to Wednesday’s story.
Ricciardo’s move to McLaren was already certain before it was clear that Sainz would go to Ferrari. Sainz ‘McLaren’s contract basically ends in late 2020; however, the team could have kept it in 2021 with the option. This is spearheaded by inaccurate reports in the Spanish media that McLaren offered a raise until recently to keep Sainz.
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Only when McLaren made it clear that candidate Ricciardo would actually sign the contract, the British racing team approved the change to Sainz Ferrari. Meanwhile, some reported that Vettel was McLaren’s first choice as a media diversion for decision makers in Woking.
For Ricciardo, McLaren is an obvious choice after the disappointing 2019 sports season (ninth World Cup, fourth place in Monza for best individual result) and little promising winter 2020 tests with the new R.S.20. Not only because the once successful team of greats like Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna or Mika Häkkinen will drive with Mercedes engines again in 2021.
McLaren has been on the rise since team boss Seidl and chief technology officer James Key took office in Woking in early 2019, and superstar Fernando Alonso and engine partner Honda were looking to go far. 2017 still with 30 points ninth in the constructors’ championship, 2018 (62 points) and sixth, in 2019 a strong change was achieved with 145 points.
Ricciardo and McLaren: negotiated in 2018
In addition, Renault did its best in 2018, investing in a completely renovated factory in Enstone and the equivalent of € 50 million in Ricciardo for two years; but the Formula 1 program is under scrutiny due to a savings program in the group. And not only since the beginning of the crown crisis.
Ricciardo is the preferred candidate for Seidl team boss and McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who had already carried out contract negotiations with the Australian in 2018. Ricciardo really wanted to move to Ferrari two years ago, but was stopped by Charles Leclerc . His hope of an opportunity at Mercedes was also not fulfilled.
What was less present in the media was that he was in contact with Brown and McLaren even then, but he eventually switched to Renault. McLaren was still a team of Renault customers at the time. The shape curve of the past two years apparently led Ricciardo to realize that he was betting on the wrong horse in the summer of 2018.
The 30-year-old made his debut in 2011 on Colin Kolles’ HRT team as Red Bull Junior in Formula 1 and was built for Toro Rosso in 2012 and 2013 for Red Bull Team A. There he immediately defeated four-time world champion Vettel with 3: 0 victories and 238: 167 points in 2014. He only narrowly lost against Max Verstappen from 2016 to 2018 (4: 5 victories and 578: 608 points).
For Vettel, the Ricciardo-McLaren News means that the options for the continuation of the Formula 1 race are increasingly manageable. In Tuesday night’s ‘Starting Grid’ podcast, the future of the outgoing Ferrari driver and a possible resignation after the end of the 2020 season were key issues. More about this in the audio player at ‘Motorsport-Total.com’.
