Ricciardo discloses the level of negotiations over his Ferrari F1 seat

The RB racer tells how he almost spent a season as Charles Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari.

The depth of Daniel Ricciardo’s negotiations over a possible Formula 1 team seat at Ferrari has been made public.

When Mercedes announced that Lewis Hamilton will be joining Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season, the driver market was taken aback.

After Sebastian Vettel revealed his intention to leave the company to join Aston Martin, Ricciardo was previously connected to Ferrari for a spot in 2021 to work with Charles Leclerc.

The Australian was considered for the Ferrari seat before they decided to go with Carlos Sainz, but he ultimately landed up at McLaren.

“There was conversations, but it was never it was never like ‘Here’s the contract, will you sign it?’ It never got to that point,” he told media, including RacingNews365.

“So it was never close to a point where it was in my hands and I certainly engaged in some conversations, but I would say it got to the first level it never got to the second or even the third.

“It was never crazy close, because also they were a top team so it was always something at the time I was keeping an eye on.”

Ricciardo: I try not to put too much weight on stuff like that

Given that his father was born in Italy, Ricciardo has some familial ties to the nation.

When making decisions, he made an effort to put the team’s competition and heritage aside and concentrate instead on its cultural association.

“I never wanted to just put everything into that like ‘Oh, it would be amazing to be a Ferrari driver one day’ I kind of had a more simple approach that if it works, if the timings right, maybe that’s a thing that happens. But I didn’t put everything into it,” said Ricciardo.

“At the end of the day, it’s a very prestigious race team, but it’s a race team just like the others. I try not to put too much weight into all the other stuff that comes with it.”

Instead, having taken Nyck de Vries’ spot midway through the previous season, he will compete in his 14th Formula One season with Red Bull sister team, RB.

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