“It’s only at the track or in the simulator room we’re able to get some face-time”– Daniel Ricciardo claims his integration into McLaren became tricky due to tough COVID-19 protocols

Daniel Ricciardo who had an underwhelming debut year with McLaren in 2021 claims that COVID-19 protocol disturbed his bonding with the team.

Daniel Ricciardo was signed by McLaren with massive expectations, and apart from a few glimpses of brilliance, the 32-year-old race driver’s contribution to his team’s final tally was limited.

This gap in expectation and reality allowed Ferrari to overtake McLaren in the constructors’ standings. Now, reflecting back to his year, Ricciardo believes he had a poor year.

Though, he also blames it on the stringent COVID-19 protocols in 2021. According to him, the strict guidelines limited his contact with his crew. Therefore, affecting his performances.

“You always want to build something, that’s ultimately relationships, comradery, so that you have the same goal, you want to be chasing that one thing,” Ricciardo said.

“To do that you want to be on the same page and therefore it comes back to building these relationships. It is trickier with Covid and some of the protocols. It’s only at the track or in the simulator room we’re able to get some face-time.”

As always, there were plenty of brilliant @danielricciardo moments over the last year 🙂

So here’s an early Festive treat – the best of the Honey Badger from 2021!#F1 pic.twitter.com/gv5Nrz6eZg

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 24, 2021

Also read: Lando Norris believes Ferrari never had a poor car in 2020

Daniel Ricciardo hoping for a better 2022

With the whole F1 fraternity gaining immunity against COVID-19, there might be more relaxed guidelines compared to the last couple of years. And then Ricciardo is expecting a better future with the Woking-based team.

“But hopefully next year that can be opened up a little bit more, that we can do some off-track activities as a team that help with building and all of these sort of things, which go a long way.”

“With the tools we’ve had. It’s been good and it’s definitely a good understanding with the people that work around me at the team. I’m happy to have built that, built that level of trust as well. But these things can always grow and become more valuable.”

Also read: Daniel Ricciardo dismayed after his first year with McLaren

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More