“He Is Pretty Ruthless”: Daniel Ricciardo’s Track Record Against Vettel and Verstappen Left Red Bull Veteran Predicting the Worst for Lando Norris

When Daniel Ricciardo arrived at McLaren in 2021, there was a lot of expectations from the honey badger. He performed really good alongside some of the best drivers on the grid as his teammate – Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. As a result, former Red Bull driver David Coulthard issued a warning to Ricciardo’s new partner Lando Norris. Unfortunately for the former, things didn’t quite work out.

Speaking about this, Ben Hunt quoted Coulthard in his Lando Norris: A Biography book, “This is a great test for Lando. he’s [Ricciardo] easy-going off track. But he is pretty ruthless on track and has that racer’s heart and edge, which we saw come out when he was alongside Max and Seb. It will be a difficult time for Lando.”

Notably, Ricciardo was a race winner in Red Bull when he raced alongside both Vettel and Verstappen, respectively. In 2014, with Vettel, Ricciardo won three races and took eight podiums. The German driver on the other hand, who was the defending champion back then claimed only four podiums. He even finished the season ahead of Vettel.

On the other hand, when Verstappen arrived in Red Bull to race alongside Ricciardo, things were much more competitive. In 2016, the Perth-born driver was better driver with a P3 finish against Verstappen’s P5. It was the same in 2017 when Ricciardo was superior. But in 2018 things turned sour between the two drivers and their clash in Baku took things to a different level.

Nevertheless, after the controversial 2018 season, Ricciardo left Red Bull to join Renault, and in 2021, he joined McLaren to race alongside Norris. However, his stint with Zak Brown’s team was one to forget. It turned out so poor that he was shown the exit door at the end of the 2022 F1 season.

Lando Norris’ reaction before Ricciardo’s arrival in McLaren

When it revealed that Ricciardo was going to replace Carlos Sainz at McLaren in 2021, Norris felt very nervous. This was primarily because Ricciardo was a hard racer and a seven-time GP winner back then, while Norris was yet to win a race.

Charlotte Sefton, who worked with McLaren back in 2021 revealed this as per Hunt in his book. She said, “When Carlos left I think Lando got a bit nervous again. Because he was a bit like, ‘well this guy’s obviously won seven races. He’s like a known quantity and he’s got really good reputation.”

Furthermore, Brown, the CEO of McLaren wanted Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo to compete with each other and extract out best results for the team. However, there was little animosity or rivalry between them as the duo clicked well off the track, but on track, things were far from expectations from the team management.