Daniel Ricciardo Took Leap of Faith in McLaren’s ‘Plan’ Before Disastrous Stint Almost Ended His F1 Career

Sabyasachi Biswas | 24/12/2023
Daniel Ricciardo Took Leap of Faith in McLaren’s “Plan” Before Disastrous Stint Almost Ended His F1 Career

Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren stint was far from ideal. The Australian driver, who entered the team full of hope and expectations, hardly managed to fulfill them. Ricciardo, who expected the team to excel in the regulations in 2022, failed as the car was far from being competitive and lagged by quite a margin.

On this, Ben Hunt quoted Ricciardo in his Lando Norris: A Biography book, “I feel like McLaren have done things to set themselves up for the rule changes. The next era of F1 has the ability to turn the field around a little bit. Everything I have seen excites me about where McLaren is heading.”

“I believe in the personnel. They have more backing and are doing what it takes to be a real contender.”, claimed Ricciardo.

However, his expectations came crashing down as he barely managed to perform with the underperforming car. Furthermore, Ricciardo also couldn’t repeat his performance in 2022 from 2021 where he claimed a win in the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

The Honey Badger’s point difference with his then-teammate Lando Norris wasn’t too huge in his first year. But in 2022, everything changed. Ricciardo regularly failed to enter Q3 in qualifications and often finished the races without points.

On the other hand, Norris was performing very well, which in turn increased the pressure on Ricciardo to deliver. In the end, the Australian driver’s failure to cope with his teammate and grab points saw him out of the team at the end of the season.

A classic comeback story by Daniel Ricciardo

After Daniel Ricciardo was shown the exit door from McLaren, he failed to get a suitable seat for him. This saw him stay out of the grid for quite some time and use this opportunity to retrospect.

While he was out, he joined Red Bull Racing as their reserve driver behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. However, the Australian GP this season made him feel left out and realize that he wasn’t done.

After the British GP, Ricciardo went through the Pirelli tire test with the RB19 where he impressed Christian Horner and Helmut Marko. In doing so, he got the AlphaTauri seat that belonged to underperforming Nyck de Vries.

All in all, Daniel Ricciardo got the chance for redemption in F1 with AlphaTauri. As he finished the season with the Red Bull sister team, he also managed to grab the seat for the entirety of the 2024 F1 season.

Post Edited By: Aishwary Gaonkar
Christian Horner Daniel Ricciardo Helmut Marko Lando Norris Nyck de Vries

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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