Daniel Ricciardo’s Future
Daniel Ricciardo's Future
Daniel Ricciardo was supposed to have a rebirth once he arrived at McLaren. But with only one podium slash win under his belt in the last 1 and a half years he’s been with the team, it is safe to say that Daniel has disappointed team boss Zak Brown and the team. So, what is happening to the honey badger as of late? Does he have enough time and trust from the team to turn things around?
And what does it mean that McLaren is now trialing different drivers? Well, you’re going to have to stick around to find out. But before we get to it, consider subscribing to the channel as this will be the 2nd week in a row that we’ve uploaded 5 times in a week, just to keep you guys updated on the latest happenings in the f1 space.
Ricciardo is widely known and loved as the “last of the late breakers” during his time at Red Bull. But many believe that this driving style is what is making it hard for Daniel to adapt to the MCL36. While many would say that it is up to Daniel to adapt to the tools he’s been given, teammate Lando Norris would have Daniel’s back saying that he too had struggles of his own at the start of the season:
“I understand certain parts of it; the rest of it’s at the same time, I just focus on myself and that’s all, you know. As much as I’m willing to help and offer advice and answer questions, it’s not like I go out there only to try and do that. I still have to focus on my own race and try and finish sixth and get the good points like that. It’s a balance; certain things I do understand – other bits not so much. “Because I do feel like it’s a difficult car to drive, our car. You know, I think our characteristics which he’s also had over the past few years, even Carlos [Sainz] said it, they’re quite specific and unique so some of the driving styles you need are like not ones you kind of grow up learning, and therefore you have to adapt quite a bit.”
Norris would also add that he too had to change his driving style in order to adapt to the MCL36 saying:
“I struggled at the beginning of the season probably with my driving style a bit more than what Daniel struggled with initially in the first few tests, and I feel like I had to adapt quite a bit.”
And to finish his statement, Lando would give some insight as to why he thinks Daniel is still struggling with the car, which would confirm the notion that it is Daniel’s driving style that is hindering him from getting to grips with the car.
“Some of my feelings are not translated to his feelings. And how we drive the cars is slightly different as well; I prefer a car with – I don’t mind as much instability from the car and kind of can push on the fronts more, and he prefers a car that is a bit more stable and made with a little more understeer.”
These statements from Lando can be taken in many ways, but at the core of it is that Daniel has to adapt and change in order to achieve the level of success F1 fans have seen him reach in the past. But how much time does one need, and how much does he still have to figure things out?
This past week, McLaren gave IndyCar race driver Colton Herta a chance to test run the MCL35M. While it’s been customary as of late for F1 teams to bring in stars for some light-hearted runs, team boss Zak Brown says that Colton’s was far from that. When asked about Colton’s test run in a recent episode of the F1 podcast, Zak would reply with:
“We’re very serious about anyone we put in our Formula 1 car. The fact that he’s American is great, but we lead with performance. Nationality is on the list, but we would never select a driver for commercial reasons first. The first gate to get through is: do we think this driver is world champion, Grand Prix-winning capable? And if the answer to that is yes, then we continue to proceed. If they happen to be British, because we’re a British team, or American, because that’s an important market, or from Asia, because that’s an important market, it’s kind of a commercial bonus. But first and foremost, we’re here to win races – that’s what our sponsor partners want. And yes, he’s been very impressive in IndyCar. He was Lando [Norris’s] team mate not long ago in Europe, so he has European racing background so [our thinking is] let’s give him a go and see what he’s made of.”
Colton has previously said on record that driving for an F1 team is a serious ambition for him. And after his test run, the media asked if he felt like he was fast enough for Formula 1, he would reply with:
You can’t say no to that question or else you wouldn’t be a professional driver! I do think I’m fast enough. Whether people agree or not, only time will tell. Hopefully, I get some more chances in the car and that can kind of show.”
Now as expected, most fans would see this as a clear sign that McLaren may be looking for options to move on since Daniel has not been producing the results that they expected him to. But Zak would be swift in dismissing these rumors saying:
“We’re going to do everything we can to get him back into his best form. We’re going to do whatever it takes for him, work incredibly hard because we know he can win us races. Can he do it? That depends on the car that we give him. But what we ask of him is clear: that he drives at Lando’s level, either slightly ahead or slightly behind. We have seen that when we give him a car capable of winning, he can do it.”
While Daniel would post in his Instagram story:
“There have been a lot of rumours about my future in Formula One. But I want you to hear it from me. I am committed to McLaren until the end of next year and not walking away from the sport. Appreciate it hasn’t always been easy, but who wants easy! I’m working my a– off with the team to make improvements and get the car right back to the front where it belongs. I still want this more than ever.”
Now we’ve seen 3 key figures from the team saying that the car is far from what they want to be and far from being a legitimate contender. But what specifically is the problem with the MCL36? Well, McLaren’s F1 technical director James Key believes that it all stems from their inability to reduce drag on high-speed circuits and their sensitivity to high track temperatures. In Key’s words:
“I don’t think we have a particularly narrow working range. We can make the car work at most places. We have a couple of weaknesses which tend to make one track different from another one. Straightline speed is an issue for us, surprisingly. We’re trying to work out how we can improve that. That’s not an issue we had before and certainly, our predictions for our development on the car suggested it should be an issue, so we’re trying to figure that out. And in high track temperatures, lower-speed corners have tended to be a little bit more problematic. We know there are a few issues but it’s not due to a small working range.
And the undoubted solution to these problems will be from a development standpoint rather than a setup change which Key would agree to and say that there a plethora of ideas in the works to address these issues. In Key’s words:
“You could say maybe we should have been a bit more thorough in a certain piece of research, or maybe we could have been a bit more brave when we dealt with it. But you only really know that when you run your car for the first time with regs that are so fresh and different. There are activities which are being looked at in detail, and have been for a while now, to see what options we’ve got. Some of them might be a 2023 car [introduction] where you’re looking at, well, actually, if we did geometry slightly differently, you could have this effect. Some of them could be shorter-term measures. Both [car weaknesses] contain short- and long-term activities to try and improve.”
And there you have it guys, so what do you think? Is it times up for Daniel at McLaren? If not, will the team sort out their issues enough to give Daniel a car that he can more easily adapt to? 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!
