McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl insists the team was “transparent” with Daniel Ricciardo during talks with Oscar Piastri.
On Friday, the Woking-based outfit announced the reigning Formula 2 champion as their second driver for 2023, this after the CRB decided a two-year contract signed with the Australian was valid despite a claim by Alpine.
However, also revealed in their ruling was the date on which Piastri put pen to paper, that being July 4, much earlier than many had thought.
In fact, Ricciardo himself came out on social media nine days later on July 13th maintaining he would be seeing out his contract at McLaren.
“To be honest on the dates, that’s the first I’ve heard,” he said via Sky Sports. “If that’s the case, then so be it. It’s not really my decision to make.
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“I’m not aware of obviously timelines and what the team is discussing.
“I guess what the team does preparing Oscar, that’s not my business in terms of what they spoke [about].
“We were already discussing my, not my future, of course but where we could improve in order to have a better future with the team.
“So I’m aware there was going to be talks ongoing.”
ESPN later cited a source close to Ricciardo offering more detail on the matter.
“To be clear, Daniel and his team did not know Oscar was signed when Daniel posted that statement on July 13th,” they reported.
“At that point, there were discussions about Daniel’s future, but more so in the event he wanted to exercise his opt-out clause.
“The team continued to ask Daniel his plans for next year, I guess hoping his answer would eventually change, but he continued to make his intention to stay with the team known.
“It wasn’t until Austria where he and his team were made aware the team was exploring other drivers for 2023.”
Responding to the comments in a special press conference following the Piastri announcement, Seidl defended McLaren.
“Obviously, we don’t go into the details of the contract that we signed with Oscar,” he said.
“Regarding Daniel, as we have communicated last week, I think throughout this year Daniel, Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] and myself had an open and transparent dialogue at any time of where we both are. Therefore, there is no issue in that aspect.”