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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri's mother Nicole earlier this year recalled the conversation with her son when she realized that he would replace Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren from 2023 onwards. The young Aussie driver surprised everyone when he decided to race for the Woking-based outfit over Alpine as he had been the Academy driver of the French team.
The British team decided against retaining Ricciardo for 2023 and canceled his contract a year earlier to replace him with his fellow compatriot owing to the eight-time race winner's struggles in the car. The announcement was controversial, as Alpine and McLaren went to court over the deal, with the latter emerging victorious.
While appearing on The Red Flag Podcast in 2024, Oscar Piastri's mother Nicole revealed that she was shocked when her son gave the news about his contract and replacing Daniel Ricciardo. She recalled:
"I'm like 'oh my God McLaren oh my God' 'cause that was totally new to me. I did not see that coming, right... and I was like ' Oh my God that's amazing!' and then it dawned on me what that meant."
"I was like 'oh no wait, oh my God...' and he's nodding, and I said 'oh my God Daniel! I love Daniel!' ... He's like just deadpan he's like 'yep everybody loves Daniel, yeah that's...that's going to be a problem."
Daniel Ricciardo returned to the sport in mid-2023 with AlphaTauri, which is currently known as the VCARB F1 team, but lost his seat to Liam Lawson post the Singapore GP this year owing to his inconsistent performances.
US GP chairman extends an invitation to Daniel Ricciardo for this weekend's race
Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein stated that Daniel Ricciardo should take advantage of his strong fanbase in Texas and attend the US Grand Prix this weekend despite not competing on track.
As per Motorsportweek, Epstein said:
“Daniel, he may be able to have just as big an impact out of the car as he has in it at our grand prix. I’m not sure that necessarily people are buying tickets to come see him race if he’s not in a competitive car, right? So if you’re coming because he’s part of the F1 community, I think he can still be part of the F1 community in a pretty meaningful way.
“He’s really, really loved in Texas, and I think he likes it here. I hope he’s still coming here, because we’ve got a lot of people who would love to shake his hand or get his autograph or take a picture. Just see him around town."
Many fans and F1 personnel felt Daniel Ricciardo did not get the standoff he deserved from the Red Bull family given the abrupt nature of his exit from the team.
