Steiner on Ricciardo: 'At the beginning I reached out'

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be marked, among other things, by Mick Schumacher's last race. Haas F1 announced on Thursday that Nico Hulkenberg will be his successor next season. Speaking to GPblog and others, Guenther Steiner says he also tried Daniel Ricciardo.

There had been doubts about Schumacher's qualities for some time. The driver came in with a lot of confidence last race year, but failed to succeed with the team. As a result, the American squad decided to start considering other options.

In the search, Haas not only had Hulkenberg in mind, but Ricciardo's name also came up. The Australian had been through a difficult period at McLaren and had not clarified his future with the formation at the time, Steiner reveals.

"At the beginning I reached out - actually before the McLaren thing happened - I reached out to see what he was doing next year. But then we didn’t go anywhere," the team boss says. In the end, Ricciardo and McLaren decided to part ways, but he did not make the switch to Haas.