Christian Horner has detailed how a “badly advised” Daniel
Ricciardo walked away from a Red Bull contract extension that would
have had him earn equal money to Max Verstappen. During 2018,
Ricciardo was locked in contract talks with Red Bull, but owing to
the rising threat of Verstappen, the aftermath of their Azerbaijan
crash, and concerns over the 2019 Honda engine deal, Ricciardo
jumped ship to Renault. Since 2019, he moved to McLaren in 2021
before losing his seat after poor performances in ’22 , signing on
as third driver for Red Bull in ’23. The Australian is back racing
after AlphaTauri drafted him in as a replacement for Nyck de Vries,
having missed five races after his comeback due to a broken hand
suffered in Dutch Grand Prix practice. Ricciardo is hoping to take
Sergio Perez’s seat for 2025 alongside Verstappen, with Horner
revealing that late Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz had agreed
to a contract matching Verstappen’s months before Ricciardo signed
with Renault over the 2018 summer break. Ricciardo contract talks
“Daniel is a great guy, who was very badly advised earlier in his
career,” Horner told the Eff Won podcast. “Everybody f***s up at
some point and I think he recognised that he made a mistake [in
leaving Red Bull], he didn’t have good advice around him at the
point he left us and he could see that Max was growing, and
probably didn’t realise just how good he was going to be. “It was
obvious at that stage that Max was coming and you could just see
the raw talent, it just needed polishing a bit, so we gave Max a
contract at the beginning of 2018 to secure his future. “I remember
Daniel being upset at the time, and suddenly felt that he didn’t
want to be the support act, and he got a lot of noise in his ear
about money on the table. “I spoke with Dietrich [Mateschitz]
before the Austrian GP and said: ‘Look, it’s a bit marginal with
Daniel [over signing a new contract], can you just show him some
love, because Helmut [Marko] is obviously very pro-Max? “‘Just
balance things out and let him know that you want him?’ So he took
Daniel upstairs after the race in Austria, and they were gone for
well over an hour and then both reappear with smiles on thier
faces.” Same salary as Verstappen Horner then revealed that
Mateschitz had promised to pay Ricciardo a salary that matched
Verstappen’s, something that shocked the billionaire despite
signing off on both. “I said [to Mateschitz], ‘What did you agree
with him?’ and he said: ‘I said, I’ll just give him whatever we do
Max. “I was like: ‘Wow, do you know what we pay Max?’ and so I gave
him the number and he said: ‘Who the f*** agreed to that’ and I
said: ‘You.’ “He said: ‘Oh that’s a lot of money, but he’s is a
great guy, so let’s do it, give him the same deal that Max has.’
“So [Daniel’s] agent is obviously jumping through hoops at the
time, and that was for a two-year deal [for 2019 and 2020].”
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