Ricciardo: This isn’t it for me

The highly convoluted saga is well told, and now that the dust is settling Ricciardo has been handed a kit bag full of cash (or whatever) give or take $20-million (depending on the source) to walk away a year early from Woking.

Ricciardo won at Monza last year, an anomaly of a race in which the two top protagonists Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton took one another out, a result that remains the highlight of his tenure with the team.

And one which turned out to be a false dawn for the big-smiling Aussie, as he was still hopelessly overshadowed by Norris thereafter and into this season as well.

Nevertheless, a win was a win - the first for McLaren since Jenson Button triumphed at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix - and that's Ricciardo's legacy with the team.

As of writing, 33-year-old Ricciardo is unemployed for next year in F1 and is adamant that there is unfinished business: “The sport, I still love it, I still love it. This hasn’t affected any of that. I still have that fire in me, that belief in my belly, that I can do this at the highest level.

“All that stuff is still there. But yes, I just wanted to say I appreciate everyone’s support from the highs, to the lows – everything in between. This isn’t it for me. We’ll see what lies ahead. I just wanted to say I appreciate you."

The best option for Ricciardo is that Alpine sign him as Piastri slipped through their fingers, however, Ricciardo's shares have taken a pounding since he departed Red Bull for Renault (aka Alpine now) and McLaren.

With the Bulls, he scored seven Grand Prix victories and was a constant front-runner. Since then he has been toiling in the obscurity of a midpack, with no way out.

A return to Alpine (he was there when it was Renault) is the best bet as the French team's Plan-A of Piastri partnering Esteban Ocon next year appears to have gone south; Plan-B of OCO-RIC is not a bad option - the pair teammates there in 2020 - arguably better than having a rookie in the team next year.

But there is no deal as yet according to Ricciardo: “I think for the future, what lies ahead, I’m not sure yet, but we’ll see. I look back on this time with McLaren, I look back with a smile. I learned a lot about myself, I think things that will help me for the next step in my career but I think just in general, in life.

“You know, from a results point of view, for sure, to consistently get the results and the form I was after, it wasn’t always there, and it made some weekends tough. I felt those, absolutely, but I also have many happy memories of my time at the team.

"I think about Monza, I think about standing on the top step, I think about bringing the team their first win since 2012, you know, like that sort of stuff was awesome. To see the smiles from everyone’s faces, to be in that moment, that’s something I’ll never forget, so yes, there’s a lot of good stuff to take from this as well.

“We had a lot of discussions, but in the end we mutually agreed that this is the right thing for both of us. I will continue to do the rest of this year, absolutely, and I’ll continue to give it my all. So that’s that.”