Daniel Ricciardo has revealed a conversation with fellow Australian Mark Webber in the wake of the former Red Bull star's role in replacing him at McLaren with Oscar Piastri.
Webber is the F2 champion's mentor and manager, and played a key role in deciding his Formula 1 debut. His relationship with McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl opened the door to the youngster's switch from Alpine for next season.
But the unfortunate side-effect has been felt by Ricciardo. He has been let go from his contract a year earlier than planned amid his struggle for form, and now he looks at risk of dropping out of the sport altogether – Australian outlet news.com.au described the whole affair as "a ruthless back-stabbing".
Ricciardo has revealed he has been in contact with Webber, who apologised and said he "felt bad" for putting the 33-year-old in this predicament. And as might be expected of the affable Aussie, he accepted that apology with no hard feelings at all.
"We hadn't seen obviously each other in person (since it all started)," he said. "I feel he didn’t need to, but he felt like he wanted to, in a way, apologise and try to just see how I'm doing. Obviously I know how this sport is – it's nothing personal to me.
"He wanted to make sure that I knew that and understood that. And just to make sure that I felt okay. He feels really bad, obviously, [about] how it's gone down and obviously how things have been put out there in the media. So yeah, it was obviously nice to speak to him."
Ricciardo went on to reveal he has also spoken with his successor at McLaren, telling Piastri to also not worry about any rift between them. He added: "I've also spoken to Oscar, to be honest, and just made sure that there's no bad feelings there. I understand how this works.
"He's trying to make it – he's trying to get into Formula 1. And this moment should be also really big for him. I don't want to make it a bad situation for him. That's that – it's nothing personal. So that's all the conversation was. And I truly do wish him well. I want him to have a good run in Formula 1.
"If there's no communication, you never know what someone's feeling or thinking. Obviously he's a lot younger than me. I don't know how he feels – if he's nervous to reach out and see how I'm doing. Also, I wanted to make sure that it was clear that I understand his position. And absolutely no hard feelings.
"So that was good. I think it made him feel better. And yeah, I think the last thing he wanted was to have some weird tension between a few of the only Australians in this sport. So I'm glad that we've done that."
