Danny to McLaren

Absolutely.

He took a significant paybump. I don't think he ever bought the ''renault for WDC'' narrative, I'm sure he had question marks about the Honda engine in the back of his mind (I'm sure all of us did).

 

Renault didn't meet expectations in 2019, that's for sure. It wasn't going to get any better in 2020, and 2021.
As a team, they are almost as dysfunctional as Ferrari in terms of intrigues, and bad atmosphere.
The infulfilled promises, the Ghosn affair bringing more incertitude, plus the F1 team under constant threat must have made Ricciardo's mind to leave.

 

I don't recall Seb doing anything at Ferrari, especially the last 3-4 years.

 

I think that was the case. Ricciardo probably never saw Renault as a long term commitment, just a stop gap solution, waiting for a better opportunity.
He got that. No chance for him to have a seat in the 3 top teams, so McLaren is supposedly the best he can get.

 

The Ferrari of 2019 was not nearly as good as the Ferrari from 2017 or 2018..

But I don't think Seb will ever get over Germany 2018.

 

Germany 2018 was surely a watershed in his career.
Every this has been more or less downhill since
But I remember an early warning at the Mexican GP the year before, or was it 2016.
Vettel came off on his own, and couldn't explain why.

 

Sometimes, it's just time to move on, to another team, another type of racing, or to another sport altogether.

 

Daniel always seems to have a grievance with something or someone, he's annoying.