Ricciardo reveals of talks with Webber, Piastri but no hard feelings for them

Daniel Ricciardo talks about the discussions he held with Mark Webber and even Oscar Piastri over the Zandvoort F1 weekend after the announcement.

It was rough last few weeks for Ricciardo who lost his McLaren drive for 2023 and is yet to have a secured seat to continue his F1 career. The circumstances in which he did certainly would have hurt him, being replaced by a fellow countrymen.

In fact, it is all-Australian affair with the involvement of Webber who is the manager of Piastri. Over the Zandvoort weekend, when it was officially confirmed that the youngster will replace Ricciardo, the latter did get in touch with both the drivers.

While he met Webber in the paddock, he called up Piastri to congratulate him. The current McLaren driver insisted of no hard feelings with either of them even though he would be hurt from inside as professionally, the youngster deserved to be in F1.

“I obviously touched on a bit of it,” said Ricciardo to media. “We obviously hadn’t seen each other in person [since it all started], so he wanted to basically just… I mean, I feel he didn’t need to, but he felt like he wanted to apologize in a way and try to just see how I’m doing. And obviously… I knew as well, like, I know how this sport is, it’s nothing personal to me. And he wanted to make sure that I knew that and understood that.

“And just to make sure that I felt okay. And he feels really bad, obviously, how it’s gone down and obviously how things have put out there in the media. And that, so yeah, it was obviously nice to speak to him. I’ve also spoken to Oscar, to be honest, and just made sure that there’s no bad feelings there. I understand how this works, and he’s trying to make it, he’s trying to get into Formula 1. And this moment should be really big for him.

“And I don’t want to make it… I don’t want to make it a bad situation for him. And that’s that, it’s nothing personal. So that’s all the conversation was. And I truly do wish him well, you know, I want him to have a good run in Formula 1. So it’s just the circumstances and that’s how it is. But I still… still obviously like Mark a lot and respect him,” summed up Ricciardo, who was asked to elaborate on his talks with Piastri.

“Yes, we spoke,” continued Ricciardo. “It was obviously I wanted to wish him well. What we spoke about is private, but also I don’t… doesn’t bother me saying it, I wanted to tell him that there’s no hard feelings, you know, because… If there’s no communication, you never know what someone’s feeling or thinking and, obviously, he’s a lot younger than me.

“So I don’t know maybe how he feels, if he’s nervous to reach out and see how I’m doing. Also, I wanted to make sure that it was clear that I understand his position. And absolutely no hard feelings. And so yeah, that’s… that was good. I think it made him feel better. And yeah, I think it was the last thing he wanted was to have some weird tension between a few of the only Australians in this sport. So I’m glad that we’ve we’ve done that,” summed up Ricciardo.

Here’s confirmation from McLaren on Oscar Piastri