It's Official: Daniel Ricciardo Will NOT Be Driving For McLaren In 2023

It's official! Daniel Ricciardo will not be driving for McLaren in 2023. 

Now, I'm a huge Daniel Ricciardo fan (as I'm sure everyone is who watched Drive to Survive), but this news isn't overly shocking. Since he joined McLaren, the two never seemed to see eye to eye. Additionally, the McLaren never seemed to fit his driving style. Even looking at this year, Lando has found so much more success than Ricciardo. That's likely because McLaren is fully invested in Lando - he has one of the longest contracts on the grid right now and will be driving in orange through 2025. Lando is also ridiculously young, he's only 22 years old and has a very bright future ahead of him. Whereas Ricciardo is 33 and has been competing in Formula 1 for over a decade. Now, I don't think he's done yet quite yet. Regardless, it's obvious that he's in a different phase of his career than Lando.

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Thanks to Netflix, rumors floated earlier in the year that Daniel and Lando didn't like each other. They always had a very high competitive spirit racing against each other, but I couldn't see them not liking each other. 

Aside from all the drama, Ricciardo is the only driver to give McLaren a win in the last 10 years. 

Kinda wild when you think about it in those terms.

As for Lando, he hasn't been happy this year with the McLaren car at all. They better make some big changes in 2023 to keep the young stud happy and wanting to continue with McLaren.

As for Ricciardo's future, he'll always been one of the biggest fan favorites in Formula 1. He has an electric personality, rips shoeys when he wins and loves to have a good time. A lot of people are guessing that he'll end up in Nascar or IndyCar, but I'm praying he goes to Haas. Ricciardo + Guenther Steiner (Haas' principal) will give us some of the best content the F1 world has ever seen!!

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I don't know if it'll happen, but let a man dream.

For McLaren, Oscar Piastri will most likely be filling in for Ricciardo. If you haven't heard about the Piastri/Alpine drama, then buckle up and read Logan's blog below…