Sadness grew among F1 fans as they saw Daniel Ricciardo struggling at McLaren. It got even worse when he was forced to exit. A feeling of emptiness for Formula 1’s 2023 season was expected when the departures of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel were confirmed. While Vettel’s return is far from happening, Ricciardo is poised to return next season with a bang!

In 2022, the eight-time GP winner, Daniel Ricciardo, was offered a seat by the rock star of the grid, Guenther Steiner. At Haas, the honey badger was reportedly offered $7 million as a salary against the demand of $10 million. This demand even featured in Drive to Survive’s latest season, despite the talks about the signing not being serious. But despite failing to get the seat, he remains a hot pick on the grid, packing a lot of potentials.

Nevertheless, Haas was reportedly the only team to seriously offer the seat to Ricciardo. And despite bringing on Nico Hulkenberg as their second driver, Guenther Steiner keeps the doors open for Ricciardo. As quoted by Motorsport Total, the Haas boss said, “It is a little early to talk about changing drivers for next year. Now let’s see how we are dealing with the current drivers. At some point, I may talk to him, but I cannot promise anything because if our two men do a good job, then it stays that way.”

“Everybody is [going to] want to speak with Daniel. The year off, maybe he knows again what he wants to do and he will be interesting for everybody in F1.”

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Ricciardo has taken time off to take a look at his career. Apart from that, the move to Red Bull has proven to be a great one, as he gets to be in the paddock as well as the headlines. His options remain open for next year, while he brings $2.1 million into his pocket.

Daniel Ricciardo almost signed with McLaren’s close rivals?

The Oscar Piastri saga dragged both McLaren and Alpine out into a fistfight. The whole episode triggered a silly season for drivers, but it meant that Daniel Ricciardo would be leaving McLaren. Coming to his rescue were Haas and Alpine. While only Haas’ interest in the Aussie was known until now, Alpine’s boss confirmed the talks as well.

Otmar Szafnauer said, “I think like Gunther. Daniel is a fantastic racing driver, still young. I wouldn’t be surprised if he races again in the future. We finally chose Pierre [Gasly] when he became available. Then Daniel went to Red Bull [as the third driver],” while not revealing the reasons behind the breakdown of talks.

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We can only guess it happened because of the Piastri saga, which instilled detestation for McLaren in the Alpine camp. However, we can only hope that Ricciardo gets a seat somewhere where he can show his prowess.