Formula 1: Daniel Ricciardo hits back at Christian Horner after ‘stratospheric Red Bull offer’ claim

Horner suggested that the Australian had rejected a ‘stratospheric’ offer before leaving the team

Daniel Ricciardo has reacted to Christian Horner’s claim that the Australian rejected a “stratospheric” offer from Red Bull before leaving the team.

Ricciardo left Red Bull for Renault at the end of 2018 and went on to join McLaren last year.

Red Bull team principal Horner said Ricciardo, 32, turned down a significant sum of money in leaving the outfit, adding that the driver’s timing was “spectacularly bad” as Red Bull ultimately claimed the Drivers’ Championship through Max Verstappen last season.

Ricciardo has now told the Herald Sun: “Obviously I would love to win a title with McLaren and then kind of say, ‘I told you so,’ or whatever. But I appreciate until that happens then there will probably be that narrative [of bad timing] with a lot of people.

“That’s okay, it doesn’t bother me. I also knew that it was going to come with the territory of leaving a big team, and obviously at the time I felt like that was the right thing for me.

“You kind of stand by that and it really did feel like the right thing. It’s not something I look back on and regret or think I should have done differently.

“But I guess as well now, Red Bull are back on top or fighting again for the world titles; I knew that would come around as well. There are also a lot of things internally in the team, so it’s not just ‘the car is fast, you should have stayed.’”

Red Bull suffered in the first race of the 2022 season, with both Ricciardo’s former teammate Verstappen and Sergio Perez failing to finish.

Verstappen won the following race, however, claiming victory in Saudi Arabia while Perez finished fourth.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, finished 14th in Bahrain and failed to finish in Saudi Arabia.