“I felt bad”– Daniel Ricciardo reveals Renault staff was intimidated by him

Tanish Chachra | 13/08/2021
"I felt bad"– Daniel Ricciardo reveals Renault staff was intimidated by him

“I felt bad”– Daniel Ricciardo reveals the staff at Renault were intimidated by him, considering it was a massive signing by the team.

Renault in 2018 aimed to make significant strides in Formula 1, as they successfully managed to sign Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull for the following year.

Though the alliance didn’t turn out to be as successful as it was intended, it was a grand signing for the French constructors, and that is why maybe Ricciardo feels that the staff in Renault were intimidated by him.

“It’s something you kind of try to ignore or never want to admit,” Ricciardo said in an interview on the Optus YouTube channel when asked if anyone he had worked with in Formula 1 had felt intimidated by him.

“Of course it’s not the case with everyone, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed that on occasions. I think one actually was when I went from Red Bull to Renault.”

“It was the most high-profile move of that season, and I think quite a few people at Renault probably read too many articles and headlines, and it was a bigger deal for them with me coming.”

“So I felt like [on my] first day at work, people were just shy to even say hi to me. If I went to go and introduce myself, that would take them back, like, ‘Why is he talking to me? I’m not that important. You could tell that some of them were really in their shell.”

“I felt bad, because I was like, ‘I’m not trying to overpower you, I’m just trying to be nice and start something’. You do feel it sometimes.”

Applied some efficient ways to break the ice

Ricciardo then revealed the method he applied to break the ice with the staff at Renault, as in the end, all the team members, including him, worked for one goal.

“I think the best way to break that is to be authentic, to be yourself and just to let them know that you’re just like them,” the McLaren driver explained. “You are a human and we all have feelings. We also all just have a passion and a love for the same thing, so that’s pretty cool.”

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren Renault

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.

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