Horner: “Improperly counseled,” Ricciardo left the same Verstappen deal

After concluding that Renault would be a better fit, Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018, but things haven’t worked out for the Australian. After turning down a lucrative contract, he is currently attempting to return for 2025.

A “badly advised” Daniel Ricciardo turned down a Red Bull contract extension that would have paid him the same as Max Verstappen, according to Christian Horner.

In 2018, Ricciardo was in contract negotiations with Red Bull. However, because of Verstappen’s growing threat, the fallout from their crash in Azerbaijan, and uncertainties surrounding the 2019 Honda engine deal, Ricciardo left Red Bull and joined Renault.

He began driving for McLaren in 2019 and left after underwhelming results in 2022. In 2023, he joined Red Bull as their third driver.

The Australian, who missed five races following his return due to a broken hand sustained during Dutch Grand Prix practice, is back in the race after AlphaTauri drafted him in to replace Nyck de Vries.

Alongside Verstappen, Ricciardo hopes to replace Sergio Perez in 2025. Horner disclosed that Dietrich Mateschitz, the late owner of Red Bull, had approved a contract that matched Verstappen’s months prior to Ricciardo signing with Renault during the 2018 summer break.

Talks on Ricciardo’s contract

According to Horner, “Daniel is a great guy, who was very badly advised earlier in his career,” as stated in an Eff Won podcast.

“Everyone f***s up sometimes, and I believe he realized that he made a mistake when he left Red Bull. He also didn’t have good guidance at the time, and he could see that Max was developing and perhaps wasn’t aware of how exceptional he would become.

“We offered Max a contract at the start of 2018 to secure his future because it was clear at that point that he was talented and only needed some refining.

Daniel was upset at the time, and he seemed to suddenly decide he didn’t want to be the support act after hearing a lot of talk about money on the table, according to my memory.

Before the Austrian Grand Prix, I had a conversation with Dietrich [Mateschitz] in which I said: ‘Look, it’s a bit marginal with Daniel [about signing a new contract], can you just show him some love, because Helmut [Marko] is of course very pro-Max?

“How about you just even things out and tell him you want him? After the race in Austria, he took Daniel upstairs, and they were gone for well over an hour before they both returned smiling.”

Similar pay to Verstappen

The billionaire was shocked to learn that Horner had disclosed that Mateschitz had promised to give Ricciardo a salary commensurate with Verstappen’s, even though he had approved of both.

“‘What did you agree with him?’ I asked Mateschitz. and he responded, “I’ll just give him whatever we do, Max,” to that.

“I thought, ‘Whoa, what are we paying Max?'” I gave him the number after that, and he said, “Who the f*** agreed to that?” To which I replied, “You.”

“Yeah, that’s a lot of money, but he’s a really nice guy, so let’s just give him Max’s deal,’ he said.

“So [Daniel’s] agent is obviously jumping through hoops at the time, and that’s for a two-year deal [for 2019 and 2020].”