It’s been a while since we saw movement in the driver market. Now that the season is supposed to start in just 6 days, it can be assumed that we won’t see any movement between drivers and teams for some time.
It was Sebastian Vettel’s decision to part with Ferrari that did the transfer roundabout.
After that, we saw Ferrari move fast to snap Carlos Sainz while McLaren decided to replace the departing Spaniard with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.
In the end, Vettel is the one who has no journey for 2021. However, if you wonder why McLaren didn’t consider a simple swap – Sebastian Vettel for Sainz – her CEO Zak Brown gives us the answer.
Why McLaren didn’t choose Sebastian Vettel
Two years ago, McLaren vied for Ricciardo to leave Red Bull. After McLaren had a disappointing season, the Australian chose Renault instead.
Since then, the significant improvement that the Woking-based team showed last year has led Ricciardo to fill his position for 2021.
In an interview with Auto Motor and Sport, CEO of McLaren, Brown said: “Sebastian is a real champion. But we had tried to lure Daniel to us two years ago. That did not work. But he remained our first choice if he was free. So this is not a vote of confidence against Sebastian.
“We couldn’t be sure whether we would get Sebastian at all. There are still many rumors about his future. We have been in contact with Daniel for the past two years. When the opportunity arose, we took advantage of it.
“When we found out that Sebastian would be on the market, we already had a handshake with Daniel.”
Today, both Vettel and Ricciardo still have a job at Ferrari and Renault this year.
For the former who has nothing to lose, he would hope to impress Mercedes, while the latter would hope to leave the French team with a podium under his belt.
