Daniel Ricciardo tipped for dream McLaren role after 'astonishing' F1 axing from team

F1 icon Daniel Ricciardo's axing by McLaren back in 2022 has been described as 'astonishing', with journalist Peter Windsor hinting at a blockbuster McLaren driver lineup.

Ricciardo was given the boot in 2022 by the team, with McLaren cutting short his contract despite the Australian having propelled them back to race-winning ways in his first season in 2021.

The 2022 season was a different story, however, with Ricciardo struggling in comparison to team-mate Lando Norris, and finishing all the way down in 11th in the drivers' championship.

Ricciardo was replaced by fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri, and the 24-year-old has since gone on to claim nine victories and 24 podiums with the Woking outfit, and leads the 2025 drivers' championship.

He and his team-mate Norris are currently involved in a close championship battle, with Piastri leading by 22 points with six race weekends remaining, and the two drivers have also helped their team win consecutive constructors' championship trophies.

Nevertheless, Windsor believes that Ricciardo and Piastri would have made for a great partnership for McLaren, despite the fact that Ricciardo finished 85 points behind Norris in 2022.

"I was talking to Mark Slade the other day, what a great engineer, what a great guy, and he was bemoaning the fact that Daniel Ricciardo is not still in Formula 1 and how good Daniel was," Windsor said on his YouTube channel. "He said he was just brilliant to work with. And you know, I’m still astonished that McLaren decided to fire him to be honest.

"I'm not saying that Oscar wasn't good enough to replace him. Of course, Oscar is a world-class class world championship-winning grand prix-winning driver. But he had a pretty stable team there with Lando and Daniel.

"Or you run the two Aussies, Daniel and Oscar. Actually, [that would] be a great team. I think you'd say, 'Oh, two, you know, two Frenchmen. You never put them together like Gasly and Ocon'. Well, you like what happened there. But two Aussies actually of that nature I think would have been really, really good. I'd love to have seen Oscar Piastri with Daniel in the other car.

"Imagine the radio between the two. Be superb. Anyway, they didn't do it and they blew it all apart and they got rid of Daniel and I think it's a great shame."

Is Ricciardo retired from F1?

Following Ricciardo's McLaren axe, the Australian found himself without a seat on the grid for 2023.

He was welcomed with open arms back into the Red Bull family, but was a reserve driver for the team, before Nyck de Vries' poor form offered the Australian a chance once more on the grid, with Red Bull sister team VCARB.

However, he struggled there across 14 months too, eventually being dropped midway through the 2024 season, which was the last time we saw Ricciardo competing on the race track.

While links with the new Cadillac team have been and gone throughout 2025, the fan favourite has signed a contract with Ford Racing as their global ambassador.

That role is not expected to see him return to the race track as a full-time racer anytime soon, however, and Ricciardo announced his retirement from F1 in the summer, meaning he has finished with eight grand prix victories and 32 podiums in the series.

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