“Even with Max Verstappen, I’ve never found myself in that position”– Daniel Ricciardo confesses gap against Lando Norris is too overwhelming for him; something he is facing for first time

Tanish Chachra | 28/11/2021
“Even with Max Verstappen, I’ve never found myself in that position"– Daniel Ricciardo confesses gap against Lando Norris is too overwhelming for him; something he is facing for first time

Daniel Ricciardo is one of the most decorated F1 drivers of this millennium, but he is struggling to overpower his decade younger teammate.

McLaren hired Daniel Ricciardo with several hopes. Though, in the first season, he failed to stand over those expectations and stands at a large deficit against Lando Norris.

Accepting his shortfall against Norris, Ricciardo concedes he is still not settled with the car. He also feels frustrated with his poor string of performances this year.

“The natural picture in my head was that every lap I do in this car,” Ricciardo told GP Racing. “I’d just get better. In Bahrain, I qualified sixth and I knew I still wasn’t close to 100 percent comfortable.”

“So in my head, I was like, ‘Well, each time I drive now I’ll just push the car more and more. And then I, let’s say, hit an early plateau where the limit was a different limit to what I was used to. And to arrive at that limit, I needed to drive the car quite differently.”

“The car has some really strong points but also some weak points, and I was just trying to navigate my way to the strong points. It didn’t always come natural for me.”

“The key was trying to break it down and understand it corner by corner because, as a whole, there were times when I was seven or eight tenths away (from Norris) and I was like, ‘I can’t do that. I don’t know where that time is.”

Also read: McLaren F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo talks about the influence The GOAT had on him

Daniel Ricciardo didn’t feel so defeated by even Max Verstappen

Ricciardo had a difficult time accepting Max Verstappen’s superiority at Red Bull. He was definitely frustrated with his condition over there. However, he claims with Norris it has been worse.

“Even with me and Max (Verstappen), a really strong and competitive rivalry, I remember Nthan me. We all know the calibre of driver Max is. So – and I’m not taking anything away from Lando – a gap that big is like foreign territory really. I’ve never found myself in that position.”

Also read: Daniel Ricciardo opens up about his relationship with former teammate Max Verstappen

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Daniel Ricciardo Lando Norris Max Verstappen McLaren Red Bull

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.

Don’t miss these