Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo was once seen as one of the up-and-coming talents who will later on be the face of Formula 1 during his days at Red Bull. But it’s been more or less 3 years since his departure from the Milton Keynes team and after a few a quick pitstop at Renault and now Alpine, it looks like Ricciardo will need to sell his services to new teams again after the latest news of Oscar Piastri taking his seat at McLaren next season.
So where did it all go wrong for Daniel? Is it time for him to retire? Or is the honey badger’s services still sought after by other teams on the grid? Well, let’s talk about it then. But before we get started consider subscribing to the channel to get updated on our latest uploads. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get started.
This season has probably been the toughest of Daniel’s career as the Australian driver sits 15th out of a total of 20 drivers in the drivers’ standings. While last year wasn’t much better for the honey badger, glimpses of his past self showed more frequently compared to this season as the Australian driver was more seen battling with the back markers than competing for points and podium finishes. This has left team boss Zak Brown disappointed, to say the least of Daniel’s performance with the team and has previously hinted in the past that the team may let him go if he does not improve.
“I don’t want to get into the contract but there are mechanisms in which we’re committed to each other and then there’s mechanisms in which we’re not,” said the American, quoted by the Race. “I’ve spoken with Daniel about it, we’re not getting the results that we both hoped for, but we’re both going to continue to push. I think he showed at Monza he can win races. We also need to continue to develop our race car, it’s not capable of winning races, but we’d like to see him further up the grid. We’ll just play it – I don’t want to say ‘one race at a time’ because we’re not going to one race at a time – but we’ll just see how things develop, what he wants to do.”
At the time people were convinced that this was Zak’s way of confirming that Daniel’s time with the team was up, but Daniel would not see it as so and would make a statement on his Instagram story saying:
“There have been a lot of rumors around my future in Formula 1, but I want you to hear it from me. I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and am not walking away from the sport. Appreciate it hasn’t always been easy, but who wants easy! I’m working my ass off with the team to make improvements and get the car right and back to the front where it belongs. I still want this more than ever. See you in Le Castellet.”
Since that statement, Daniel finished P9 in France and a disappointing P15 in Hungary before heading into the summer break. And in an interview before the F1 holidays Daniel would say that he would take the time to build himself back again and set himself up for a great comeback once the season starts. In his words:
To be honest, switching off normally gives me like a natural reset. To a point where I imagine in, say, 10 days, two weeks into the break, I would have kind of got the holiday out of my system and then I’ll build that hunger back again. So I’ll naturally think about it, after getting time off. That’s normally how it works for me. Again, go out with friends, drink some beers, have fun. And then I’ll get to the point when I start to not feel guilty but just like ‘all right, time to turn it on again hen it’s kind of a natural switch that will come back probably after 14 days. A bit like last year, [I want to] kind of start that second half of this season with a positive bang and just get the ball rolling. The triple-header, it’s intense. So I think come out and set some strong intentions. That’s the plan. Obviously it’s easier said than done. But that’s certainly the plan.
These statements were made by Daniel way before the madness had transpired. As we all know by now that it is reported that Alpine’s reserve driver Oscar Piastri will taking over Daniel’s seat at McLaren this season which put Daniel virtually unemployed for next season. And from the outside looking in, many would say that Daniel does not have much to bargain with after 2 disappointing seasons with the papaya team. But Alpine’s team boss Otmar Szafnauer believes that Alpine would be the best destination for Daniel as he believes that the team is on the upward trajectory.
Like Daniel, Otmar is also in a difficult decision after his current driver Fernando Alonso had announced at the start of the summer break that he would be leaving next season to join Otmar’s previous team, Aston Martin. And to compound on that, Otmar would announce that Piastri would be taking Alonso’s seat next season and we all know how that went. In a recent statement Otmar would first address Alonso’s decision, Szafnauer, the former Aston Martin boss, said:
“I know both teams well,” he said. “I think I know (them), because I spent 12 years at the other team, better than I know all the individuals here just yet. And I know since I’ve left in December, they’ve hired some more people, some of which I was a part of recruiting, including Dan Fallows, and Eric Blandin from Mercedes. So I know what they’re trying to do. And I know that the people that are there, and I know this team here, and both teams have great potential. But as we sit here today, this team is performing at a much higher level. It’s hard to predict the future, but in the near future, for sure this team will continue to perform at that level, if not better. We have an internal program called Mountain Climber, and that’s to hire an additional 75 people in strategic areas that will help improve the capabilities of this team. “And along with the 75 people, there’s also tools that we are improving now, some simulation tools, a new simulator, expanded capacity in manufacturing, some upgrades to our wind tunnel, all with the focus on being able to win in 100 races. So those things are still happening here. And they’re happening fast. We’re already at a level of 850 people here. So I am confident that we can outdo the team that Fernando is going to, in the time period that he will be there.”
And it seems as though Otmar and Alpine isn’t the only team vying for Daniel’s attention. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has also revealed that the team was always fond of Daniel and his services way before this recent madness. In toto’s words”
“We always had an eye on Daniel … we really like him in here,” Wolff said. “It’s just the mentality in Mercedes – I sometimes feel if you’re happy in your relationship it is not always easy (to change). It is like being married, you need to be 100 per cent behind it. It was not a lack of interest, it was just that we were in a happy relationship and there was no need to flirt with another woman at that stage.”
7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is still contracted with the team until the end of next season. And while anything past that is still an uncertainty, Lewis has previously said on record that he has no intentions of following Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso’s footsteps who were and in Fernando’s case still racing in F1 in their 40s. So if Daniel were to choose to take a gap year for next season, we may see a Ricciardo and George Russell pairing at Mercedes in 2 years’ time.
This isn’t too much of a stretch given what Toto had to say about Daniel and it is known in the paddock that the team was considering him as a replacement for Valtteri Bottas back before the start of the 2018 season. A preseason where Daniel had made it clear that he wanted to leave Red Bull so seeing Daniel in a black Mercedes racing suit isn’t as impossible as it may seem on the surface. And there you have it guys? So where do you think Daniel will end up? Let us know in the comment section below and as always don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
