{"id":346641,"date":"2023-11-15T00:14:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T01:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=346641"},"modified":"2023-11-15T03:02:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T03:02:26","slug":"ex-boss-torches-selfish-ricciardo-for-personal-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=346641","title":{"rendered":"Ex-boss torches 'selfish' Ricciardo for 'personal' split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Renault<\/a>, now Alpine F1, team boss Cyril Abiteboul<\/a> has labelled Daniel Ricciardo<\/a>'s past decision to depart the team for McLaren<\/a> after only two seasons as ill-considered and "a bit selfish".<\/p>\n

After five years with powerhouse constructors Red Bull, Ricciardo rocked the F1 world when he signed a lucrative deal with Renault during the 2018 off-season.<\/p>\n

However, the move did not \ufeffpay off as hoped with Renault slipping to fifth in the midfield pack behind McLaren.<\/p>\n

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\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Following Ricciardo's challenging first year with the \ufeffEnstone-based squad, he achieved two podium finishes for Renault in the pandemic-affected 2020 season but had already arranged to join McLaren the following year.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the French podcast Dans La Bo\u00eete \u00c0 Gants<\/em>, Abiteboul reflected on Ricciardo's time with the team and summed up his anger at the way things ended.<\/p>\n

"He makes his decision in April or May; the world is at a standstill [with COVID-19], we don't know how we're going to get back on track if we're going to get back on track," he said in the podcast, as translated from French to English by Planet F1.<\/p>\n

"In fact, I think it's a very early move, a bit selfish \u2014 because in the end, it had given the team just one season's chance, and so it's true that it's a decision that I'm taking badly. Badly."<\/p>\n

Asked if he took the matter personally, Abiteboul admitted that he felt resentment towards Ricciardo.<\/p>\n

"Of course, because I can see that it's a personal rejection," he said.<\/p>\n

"I take it completely personally. I accept it. And I can see what the consequences are going to be too.<\/p>\n

"The team was in the process of structuring itself and getting organised. We were making progress, but that meant we were not at Red Bull's level. He came from the standard environment, Red Bull, and so inevitably there was a feeling of being demoted."<\/p>\n

\"Renault<\/p>\n

Abiteboul said he put his position on the line by signing a driver of Ricciardo's calibre just three years after the Renault outfit rejoined the Formula 1<\/a> grid.<\/p>\n

He \ufeffleft the role<\/a> ahead of the team's major rebrand to Alpine in 2021.<\/p>\n

"That evening [after signing Ricciardo in 2018], I went to my favourite restaurant in Marseille with my partner," Abiteboul said.<\/p>\n

"I said to her: 'Tonight, we toast two things. One, to the fact that we've signed Ricciardo, who's a great driver. Two, to the fact that in two years' time, I'll be sacked'.<\/p>\n

"Because you sign a two-year contract and I knew that this would ultimately highlight the fact that the team wasn't yet at the required level and that this could potentially be interpreted as a bad decision.<\/p>\n

"Once again, today I have mixed feelings, but on the other hand I didn't screw up my forecasts."<\/p>\n

Ricciardo subsequently joined McLaren for the 2021 and 2022 seasons but was ousted with one year remaining on his contract to make way for fellow Australian Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n

With no seat for the 2023 season at the time, Abiteboul insisted that Ricciardo made a habit of making bad career choices.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

"At some point, you have to bounce back and it's complicated because we issue very cold, very harsh press releases where you can feel the feeling. What's more, Netflix is probably filming the show at the time, so they're telling it differently afterwards.<\/p>\n

"The [2020] season didn't turn out at all as we'd imagined, it turned out much better than we'd expected. But … we set off on projects, [signing] Fernando Alonso [as Ricciardo's replacement].<\/p>\n

"I don't think we had the slightest opportunity to discuss whether [Ricciardo] regretted it, whether we regretted it.<\/p>\n

"I don't think [Ricciardo] could have imagined the car making such progress, and neither could we.<\/p>\n

"I can also understand his strategy. McLaren sold him a bit of a bill of goods to get him, but that's part of the game. Ricciardo always has a timing problem, he left us too early and he left McLaren too early."<\/p>\n

Abiteboul's comments come days after Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed that Ricciardo was "badly advised"<\/a> to pass up a contract extension for 2019 that would have seen him pocket the same amount as teammate Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Renault, now Alpine F1, team boss Cyril Abiteboul has labelled Daniel Ricciardo's past decision to depart the team for McLaren after only two seasons […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346647,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346641\/revisions\/346647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/346643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}