Daniel Ricciardo was forced to split with his long-time mentor and performance coach Michael Italiano when he lost his Formula 1 seat at the end of the 2022 season. Now, with Ricciardo making a return to F1 with AlphaTauri, Italiano reveals that he regrets not achieving more with the Melbourne-born driver during their time together.
Ricciardo had to spend eight long months on the sidelines after McLaren sacked him at the end of the 2022 season. While Ricciardo had to leave, Italiano went on to continue his F1 journey by joining AlphaTauri, where he started working closely with Yuki Tsunoda.
In an interesting turn of events, Ricciardo would end up reuniting with Italiano after he joined AlphaTauri last month. However, this time, the long-time partners would be on opposite sides of the garage. While Italiano is thrilled to have Ricciardo back, he regrets not being able to spend more time with the honey badger.
Italiano has quite a bit of unfinished business with Daniel Ricciardo
Italiano started working with Daniel Ricciardo back in 2018 when he was at Red Bull. Both of them moved teams together as they hopped from Red Bull to Renault and then McLaren. Italiano appeared in the latest episode of the Pitstop podcast where he spoke about his experience coaching Ricciardo and how different it was compared to working with a youngster like Tsunoda.
Italiano explained that with Ricciardo, he was working with a driver who had already molded himself into the world of F1 and had a lot of professionalism about himself. However, with Tsunoda, things are very different because the Japanese driver is still young and learning. Therefore he is still figuring out how to deal with the pressure of the sport.
Italiano also commented that the situation in which Ricciardo had to leave F1 in 2022 was not ideal. He said, “I obviously had further endures that I would have loved to achieve with Daniel. I had big hopes that you know. We’re gonna do something great together.”
Italiano’s work with Tsunoda
Italiano also explained his work process with Tsunoda and how he helps the young AlphaTauri driver develop. The Australian performance coach explained that Tsunoda needs a lot more guidance than Ricciardo used to. However, he insisted that Tsunoda is showing good progress.
Italiano added that no one in the team has any doubts about Tsunoda’s pace. The main thing that he needs to work on is facing adversities. According to Italiano, being a sportsperson means that one is going to face some low points in their career. He revealed that his main focus lies on helping Tsunoda learn how to deal with the lows.
