While Ricciardo had another year to run on his original contract, McLaren felt they needed to make a change after a lack of results – and a termination deal was agreed with the Australian. McLaren have set their sights on signing rising star Piastri as Lando Norris’ team-mate next year, but the youngster is locked in a contract dispute with the Alpine outfit. Alpine believe they have signed Piastri, who is their reserve driver, to compete for this coming season. Piastri was clear, however, that he has not signed anything and will not drive for the team in 2023 as he is understood to have a deal with McLaren. With Alpine and McLaren adamant that their deals are watertight, the matter now looks set to be decided by F1’s Contract Recognition Board. McLaren have not made any official announcement about their plans for Piastri and wanted to ensure the situation with Ricciardo was prioritized so he could go and secure a new drive elsewhere next year. But speaking to select media outlets, including Motorsport.com, on Wednesday, McLaren CEO Zak Brown made it clear the team were confident about what they were about to do. “We are obviously very confident about our future, which we will announce in due course,” Brown said. “We want to go racing this weekend and the rest of the year, so we felt it was important to make the announcement today. “It’s a very friendly and amicable relationship with Daniel, obviously disappointing to end it this way, but we’re thinking about things like Monza [Ricciardo’s victory in Italy in 2021] which is my personal most exciting moment of my entire time here at McLaren, being on the podium with Daniel and Lando. “So yes, a disappointing result, but we’re excited for the rest of the year, as is Daniel, and we’ll announce our future in due course.” Oscar Piastri, Reserve Alpine Guide Photo: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl reckoned it was premature to discuss any potential risk for a rookie like Piastri versus an experienced driver like Ricciardo. “To be honest, I have no interest in getting into that comparison right now,” he said. “Today is about Daniel, and all weekend at Spa, it will be about Daniel. “We want to move forward. Daniel also wants to move forward on the issue we announced today. And for the future, it’s something we discuss later.” Read also:
