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That is pretty terrible from McLaren if they have no break clause on their end.

I said this not long ago, but

- Would McLaren be willing to pay $30m first of all to turf him out? Also, driver salaries aren't in the cost cap, but losses from cutting an employee might be (doubtful)?
- Would McLaren be willing to pay $30m to turf him out and would someone from Indycar, be willing to sacrifice that championship, to come in, be a number two driver in the 4th of 5th best car on the grid (and it's going backwards)
- Would McLaren be willing to pay $30m to turf him out, then put in an untried rookie from F2 who's driven an F1 car maybe a handful of times?

It wouldn't be smart turfing him out now. It would be smarter turfing him out at season's end. Get an O'Ward, Piastri, Herta et. al in for a full post-season and pre-season testing campaign.

I've been bashed for criticizing him, but I in no way think he will be turfed mid season. That is just dumb. I can see a change next season.

But it must be terrible for him and McLaren. His performances have a dead man walking vibe, and you hear how dejected he is on the team radio. "Ok, understood"

If he isn't at McLaren next year it will be a shame, but unless Seb retires I can't see him being anywhere really, while Lance continues to get a run. For that reason alone I hope he picks up his performance and is there next year.

From what's been reported the only way he won't be there next season is if Zak pays him out. From a financial POV Dan's made the obvious choice, to exercise the components in his contract that protect him financially no matter what the results are. From a competitive POV, by the end of next year he'll either have turned it around (which I doubt, it's clear now the Mclaren design philosophy is not a good fit for him and they have no intention of changing it to better suit him), be so over it at the end that he retires, or he's got so much positivity and love for the sport that he takes a stinker seat for far less money with the goal of Alonso/Vettel-ing the last part of his career. Or he moves on to his true calling as a life coach.

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Well just stumbled across this video.



Alex Palou has signed a deal with McLaren heavily implying that it is with the F1 outfit. That would then imply that Dan's quote was preempting it, meaning that he is clearly stating that it would be McLaren that is in breach of contract if he was replaced.

It is also on the McLaren website.

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/team/ind ... cing-2023/

If Palou does replace Dan, would that mean a huge payout for Dan PLUS an Indycar ride? Maybe Ericsson's and Grosjeans's successes in Indy Car might temp Dan.

That would be a ballsy move to put him straight into F1

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So besides their current F1 driver, who both appear to remain in their F1 seats next year (Or not Danny?), they got an IndyCar army of Pato, Rossi, Felix, kinda Herta and weirdly somehow Palou. Of they enter all 5 of them in the 500 (hell, run Monty in a 6th car!), It will be a juggernaut team. F*ck it, skip Monaco and bring Lando over too.
But when it comes to replacing Danny sooner or later... who would you put into that seat. All of the IndyCar drivers are undoubtedly great! But who would do best in a ground effect IndyCar? Pato? Palou? Herta? You could make a great casting show out of that.

Cant do much worse than the guy he'd be replacing.

Which quite honestly sucks to say cuz DanRic is a very likeable person. It hurts to see him struggle and maybe have 1 year left in F1 unless he is willing to take a massive paycut in 2024.

Maybe they could do like an exchange program towards the end of the Indycar season. Portland and Laguna are the same weekends as Zandvoort and Monza...

I think he'll be out at Spa, don't know who will replace Ricciardo, but end of summer break is usually a moment where underperforming drivers are swapped (Gasly is the most recent one). Or whole teams go bust and sold to new owners (Force india).

i don't think dan will walk even if they offer to pay him out. he has all the leverage and he wants to drive. he'll most likely be staying put

if you pay attention to the palou release you'll see it very specifically lists him as a test driver for mclaren. prob a similar arrangement to herta getting to test this week. zak brown is just using his head - use the prospect of getting to drive an actual f1 car to sign the best young talent in indycar

From what motorsport.com mentioned, Palou doesn't have entitlement for a Superlicence yet. I must admit, I also don't know what he would need to qualify for one.

Ricciardo went downhill when he left a (struggeling) topteam to join a (terrible) midfield team. I never understood why he thought that would be an improvement for his career.
With McLaren, he sort of got a second chance, but apart of one great weekend at Monza, he has not done much to spark interest from other top teams. It will not get better anymore, he can still end up with Alfa or Aston Martin if he thinks running at the back is better than not being in F1 at all, but it is basically over for him.

He left Red Bull because he knew he would forever play second fiddle to Max, better to be number 1 driver at Team X and possibly stand a chance of winning than clear number 2 at Team RB and never be allowed to win unless Max crashes.

there's also a slight chance that Danny might not be feeling comfortable at Woking and is driving badly on purpose just to grab the money

that could make sense if Ron was still around but I dunno

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And to this day I do feel that the Ricciardo of those days had it in him to force the Max of those days into making mistakes so he could force RBR to focus on him

Maybe Daniel would have tought, But at what cost? Its a dead end anyway
RB would be a very toxic environment if it wasnt that already because they where heavy focussed on wunderchild Max.
In that case Daniel had to be mentally strong like Nico Rosberg 2016(i know its not completly the same) and say f..k it, hopefully win a some races in 2019 while max was learning.
Daniel already knew that RB would never drop max in favour of him, and that Max would be faster over the long run

I think the crucial thing with Ricciardo is that,
He is great character and fine guy but looking at his deccision to bail out, he never had that fighting mindset like...ok this is going to be my year even if i burn all the bridges at RB back than.
Yes! at least he would have had more wins.

I think he did too, much as Webber had it in him to keep Vettel honest. The problem in both cases was the team - Mateschitz and Marko have their favourites, and nobody may challenge them.

To be an all time great in F1, you need to be just as talented (or have the judgement on who is talented) at the negociating table as much as behind the wheel

Sadly Riccardo must've been taking advice from Alonso about switching teams when. Renault was probably a great move as it got him a HUGE payday and away from Max' shadow (also the red bull driver program makes no sense if there's never any movement at the top team for them to be promoted into...) but the move again sideways to Mclaren never did make much sense
Yeah, he sneaked a lucky victory on the ONE weekend where things went right for him, but so did Renault tbh.
If he was at Alpine now it wouldn't make too much difference, compettitiveness wise, and he might well be happier with that car vs what he's driving now.

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You really think Hamilton's decision to leave Mclaren for Mercedes and his fortunes since then were pure talent? There's a shitload of fate and luck with every team change, I'm sure Lewis himself would admit the very real risk at the time of Mercedes never challenging for wins let alone championships.

If anything Dan emulated Lewis's decisionmaking in his career choices (looking for mid-tier teams that are showing the right signs to make a step up) more than Fred's (picking recent top-running teams and missing the people they've just lost that were key to their success). Engine aside, in 2018 Renault was on the rise and looking like they might have a run at a championship in the next 5 years, not massively different to the odds of Mercedes' future success in 2011. Actually Renault was arguably the stronger bet, finishing 4th in the '18 WCC while Mercedes were only 5th in the '12 WCC. Lewis could have ended up in a dud ride and been a 1-time WDC, and Dan could have ended up going from strength to strength at a steadily improving Renault rather than finding them lost with car philosophy and unstable from a leadership and brand support POV.

IMO the only real mistake is being scared to take a risk and staying where you know you'll never have even the chance of an opportunity to achieve your dreams. That's what staying at Red Bull represented for Dan.

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