Former Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul says he predicted his own future demise from the French outfit on the very day that he hired Daniel Ricciardo.
In the summer of 2018, Ricciardo was offered a new contract by Red Bull for the following year. But the Aussie ultimately declined the proposal and opted instead for a change of scenery and a big retainer, courtesy of Renault.
It was high-profile hiring for the manufacturer, but one that appeared to publicly upgrade the team’s ambitions on one end while demoting Ricciardo to the status of a midfield contender on the other. After all, the French outfit was nowhere near rivaling Red Bull.
The Enstone squad was still very much a work in progress, but its new recruit seemed convinced that a year in the midfield was a small price to pay for reaping big dividends 12 months down the road.
But deep down, a clear-sighted Abiteboul didn’t share that vision. Quite the contrary in fact as he knew that Renault’s timing was off, that the team was still a few years away from rolling out a car worthy of Riccardo’s talent.
But the opportunity to sign the Aussie was just too good to be missed as Abiteboul explained on the ‘Dans la Boite à Gants’ podcast.
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“We knew that we had to position ourselves, we couldn’t tell him: ‘Come back next year’,” he recounted.
“So we decided to do it. But the decision was not without its questions and doubts.”
Nevertheless, Abiteboul celebrated the news of Ricciardo's transfer to Renault for 2019 during a night out in Marseille with his better half, where he indulged in a moment of irony at his own expense.
“I said to her: ‘Tonight, we toast to 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!’
A clairvoyant Abiteboul had anticipated that two years of underperformance with a driver of Ricciardo’s calibre behind the wheel would reflect poorly on him. And he was right.
“We signed a two-yar contract but I knew that it [Ricciardo’s hiring] would only emphasize the fact that the team was not yet at the required level, and so it could be potentially interpreted as a bad decision.
“Today, I still have mixed feelings about that decision but I didn’t get my predictions wrong.”
Indeed, although some progress was achieved during Renault’s 2020 campaign, with Ricciardo claiming a pair of podiums during the season, Abiteboul’s days were numbered.
In early 2021, following Renault CEO Luca di Meo’s decision to restructure the team under the Alpine banner, Abiteboul was sacked.
On the podcast, the 46-year-old Frenchman, who now oversees Hyundai’s works programme in the World Rally Championship, also opened up on the bitterness he felt towards Ricciardo when the Aussie announced his move to McLaren for 2021 even before the start of the Covid-delayed 2020 F1 season.
“He made his decision in April or May, the world is at a standstill [due to Covid], and we don’t know how we’re going to get back on track, or if we’re going to get back on track,” Abiteboul remembered.
“In fact, I thought it was a very early move, a bit selfish, because in the end he only gave the team just one season’s chance, and so it’s true that it’s a decision that I took badly.
“Because I could see that it was a personal repudiation. I took it completely personally, I accepted it. But I could also see what the consequences were going to be."
Despite the letdown, part of Abiteboul didn’t blame Ricciardo.
“I don’t think he imagined the car making much progress, and neither could we,” he added. “I could therefore understand his strategy.
“Also, McLaren likely promised him the earth to get him, but that’s part of the game.
“Ricciardo has always had a timing problem: he left us too early, and he left McLaren too early.”
No argument there...
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