F1: McLaren Makes Bold $20M Bid for Ricciardo
Australian Daniel Ricciardo hold the key to the 2019 driver market, with multiple top drivers out of a contract at the end of 2018, including Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes' reigning champion Lewis Hamilton.
There is uncertainty over Raikkonen's seat at Ferrari, as the 38 year old Fin has looked on much better form this season, but has not been able to get together a good qualifying session, making mistakes every time in Q3, when he could have been on at least the front row, ultimately costing him good points in the race.
Hamilton looks set to sign again with Mercedes, but no official announcements have yet been made, and there are rumours of Hamilton retiring in the near future to focus on a music career.
Marko admits Ricciardo is of high interest, stating that he "is the king of the market."
However, it comes as a surprise that of all teams, McLaren has been the first to make an actual bid to sign the 7x race winner, as McLaren have their own pool of young drivers to call upon in the form of F2 championship leader Lando Norris and F2 front runner Nyck de Vries if their lead driver Fernando Alonso makes the switch to full time IndyCar next year.
Lando Norris wins 2018 Bahrain F2 Feature Race
If this was the case, then it is no secret that Norris would get the call up, with McLaren denying a reported 3 other teams, 2 of which being Red Bull and Toro Rosso, who wanted to sign him. However, there is also uncertainty of the security of 2015 GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne's seat for next year. Vandoorne has not performed to the expectation that everyone had of him, with just 8 points to Alonso's 32 so far in 2018.
If both Vandoorne and Alonso left McLaren after 2018, then it is possible that they would sign both Norris and de Vries, however de Vries' F2 performances might suggest otherwise, currently placing 6th with 46 points and 2 podiums compared to Norris' 94 points, 4 podiums and a win.
If McLaren deemed de Vries not ready for an F1 seat, then they would have an issue, which is why the Ricciardo bid makes sense, as they would want an experienced, yet still relatively young, driver to partner Norris in his first season.
However, there is a strong reason why Ricciardo would not even look at the contract with McLaren: he wants to win championships, McLaren will probably not give him that chance.
Currently, McLaren lie in 5th on just 40 points, behind both their and current Red Bull engine supplier Renault. Red Bull are 3rd on 134, and have already powered Ricciardo to 2 wins this year, and an outside contention for the title. McLaren haven't scored higher than a 5th place this year, nor the last 3 years; they haven't won a race since 2012; they haven't won a title since 2008. Why on Earth would Ricciardo risk his career like Alonso did and go to McLaren?
There is one reason: money. Ricciardo's 2018 contract sees him get payed $6m, and McLaren's is a starting bid of $20m, with that number set to increase every week, which would make him one of the highest payed drivers on the grid.
Ricciardo also admits seeing some appeal in joining either McLaren or Renault, who attempted to sign him last year, as he understands his status as a driver, and his ability because of that to build the team around him, likening the idea to what Hamilton has been able to do with Mercedes. Another pivotal point in Ricciardo's contract talks is the recent announcement of Honda supplying engines for Red Bull for the next 2 years. This year, they have been better than expected with Toro Rosso, but the last 3 years...
Alonso retires from 2015 Brazilian GP qualifying
For now, all we can do is speculate. But what is certain is that the 2018 'silly season' is well and truly underway after just 7 rounds, and it is promising to be very silly indeed.
