Christian Horner reveals how an ill-advised Daniel Ricciardo turned down a contract extension with Red Bull that would have seen him earn as much as Max Verstappen.
During the 2018 season, Daniel Ricciardo was negotiating a new contract with Red Bull. Times were different at the time and the crash with Max Verstappen in Azerbaijan and the switch to engine supplier Honda made the Australians choose their money’s worth and move towards Renault.
After another tour at McLaren, Ricciardo returned to the old nest in 2023 as the third driver. He was even allowed to replace AlphaTauari driver Nyck de Vries, who was sidelined due to disappointing results, but in Zandvoort Ricciardo broke his hand and was back on the sidelines.
Ricciardo has pinned his hopes on Perez’s seat to become Max Verstappen’s teammate again from 2025. Horner reveals that Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz offered Ricciardo the same salary as Max Verstappen in 2018.
“Daniel is a great guy who was very poorly advised earlier in his career,” Horner told the Eff Won podcast. “Everyone makes mistakes and I think he realizes that he made a mistake by leaving Red Bull, he was badly advised at the time he left us and he could see that Max was growing and he probably realized not how good he would become.
“It was clear at that stage that Max was coming and you could just see the raw talent, it just needed a bit of fine-tuning, so we signed Max at the start of 2018 to secure his future.”
“I remember Daniel was upset at the time and suddenly felt like he didn’t want to be Max’s support act, and he got a lot of noise in his ear about money on the table.
“I spoke to Dietrich Mateschitz before the Austrian GP and said: ‘Look, it’s a bit of a problem with Daniel, about signing a new contract, you can just show him some respect because Helmut Marko is clearly very pro-Max?”
“’Just balance it out and let him know you want him?’ So he took Daniel up after the race in Austria, and they were gone for over an hour and then they both reappeared with smiles on their faces.”
Horner says that Mateschitz wanted to pay Ricciardo as much as Max Verstappen.
“I said to Mateschitz, ‘What did you agree with him?’ and he said, ‘I said, I’ll just give him whatever we do with Max.
“I responded with, ‘Wow, do you know how much we’re paying Max?’ and I told him how much it was and he said, ‘Who the hell agreed to that?’ and said, ‘You’.”
“He said, ‘Oh, that’s a lot of money, but he’s a great guy, so let’s give him the same deal as Max’.”
Despite a two-year contract offer equal to that of Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo still decided to leave Red Bull for Renault.