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McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo risks being replaced by Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri ahead of the 2023 season if he does not manage to pick up momentum quickly, claimed TV pundit Ted Kravitz.
Pointing out that a delay in any announcement regarding the Australian rookie's seat in a team such as Williams for next season may be a sign of McLaren's potential interest in the driver, as reported by Express, Kravitz said:
“There are lots of rumours around as to why, as sort of signposted in the notebook back in Imola, Oscar Piastri, the Alpine reserve, has not signed for Williams. Could the delay be that he and his manager Mark Webber, yes that Mark Webber, are looking at potentially replacing Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren despite as we said on the Notebook maybe in Canada or before, Ricciardo looking like he was going to stay, hold on to his seat for 2023. But as every race goes by and points and performance fail to really come in for Daniel Ricciardo.”
The TV pundit continued:
“Maybe it looks more like, actually, McLaren will come in with a late offer for Oscar Piastri and nick him from under Williams’ nose and offer him Daniel Ricciardo’s seat for 2023. That is just talk around the paddock.”
Kravitz added:
“Obviously, that would leave Daniel Ricciardo maybe going to drive for McLaren somewhere else in one of their other racing series or doing something else altogether. But, yeah good luck to Danny Ric as he continues to, well as someone once said, drive to survive in Formula One.”
Ricciardo's poor results this season have given rise to plenty of rumors regarding his future at McLaren, while Piastri is currently rumored to replace Nicholas Latifi at Williams in 2023.
Daniel Ricciardo says the points-finish at Austrian GP was "damage limitation"
McLaren secured a double-points finish at the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, with Daniel Ricciardo taking a much-needed top-ten result.
In a post-race media interaction, the McLaren driver admitted that while it was good to finish in the points, the race was damage limitation at best. He said:
“It was certainly tricky. We don’t expect it to not be tricky but it was at times very tricky. It’s so hard to be consistent, sometimes I would have like half a second swings from one lap to the next and then I’ll say my tires are dead and then two laps later I was able to then get back down to a lap time.”
He added:
“We put up a solid race, nothing to spray champagne over but I think a bit of damage limitation on a circuit which proved tricky for us this weekend.”
In the the last eleven races, Ricciardo has managed to score points on only four occasions, and remains 12th in the Driver Standings with 17 points to his name.
