The last race of a Formula One season is inevitably an emotional moment for drivers. There are always a few leaving one team to join another and some who are contemplating uncertain futures. There may be one or two who call time on their careers. This year will be no different.
When the curtain comes down on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it will signal an abrupt pause or probably even the end for one of the sport’s most exciting drivers over the last decade.
He is someone who outperformed four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in his first year at Red Bull, gave reigning two-time champion Max Verstappen a run for his money during their time together and then produced some amazing results in not-so-competitive machinery at Renault.
His infectious grin and comic antics made Daniel Ricciardo a fan favourite. But the goofy exterior did not extend to the track. The Australian is an eight-time Grand Prix winner and was widely regarded as an elite driver — even a potential world champion in the right car.
However, since his fateful switch to McLaren in 2021, the ‘Honey Badger’, as he is known, has had a torrid run, outperformed and overshadowed by teammate Lando Norris.
He joined McLaren on a three-year deal with a salary estimated to be north of $20 million. But despite scoring the team’s only win since 2012 in Monza last year, Ricciardo has not delivered. That win did not turn the tide for him, as his team and fans hoped it would.
A problem of alignment
But it did show that when he has a car that aligns with his driving style, he can wring a result out of it. Unfortunately for Ricciardo, Monza was a one-off. At most race weekends, he has struggled to adapt to the McLaren, which has proven a handful to drive.
Unhappy marriage: Ricciardo has struggled to adapt to the McLaren, which hasn’t suited his driving style.
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While his underperformance last year was papered over a bit by the win — Norris outscored him 160 to 115 over the season — hopes of a turnaround this year quickly dissolved. The new regulations have only exacerbated this deficit and exposed his weakness. He has managed just a third of Norris’ points tally (35 vs. 113), with one race to go.
Ricciardo’s performance has cost the team big time as it trails Alpine by 19 points. While the Alpine drivers are closely matched on points, enlarging the team’s tally, the gulf between Norris and Ricciardo is set to cost McLaren millions of dollars, with it likely to lose the fight for fourth place in the constructors’ battle.
It was clear from early on in the season that Ricciardo’s struggles would continue. After the race in Monaco, where he finished 13th and Norris sixth, McLaren boss Zak Brown hinted that Ricciardo’s place in the team next year was far from certain.
McLaren’s patience eventually ran out. So much so that the team has paid Ricciardo to sit out the 2023 season and replaced him with a rookie in fellow Australian Oscar Piastri.
Piastri, who was part of Alpine’s young driver academy, is managed by another Australian, Mark Webber, and the latter saw an opening to get his driver a seat after Alpine dithered.
Ricciardo’s fall from grace has been drastic and shows how sometimes the wrong machinery can bring even the best of drivers down.
Narain Karthikeyan, the first Indian driver in F1, knows Ricciardo well, having been part of the same team, HRT, during the latter’s maiden season in 2011.
Speaking to The Hindu, Narain said, “F1 is a tough place and sometimes being at the wrong place at the wrong time can really affect you. There is something fundamentally different with the McLaren that Ricciardo has not been able to cope with.
“You don’t go from being a really good driver to average just like that. It shows how unpredictable the sport can be and it has not helped that he has a very strong teammate in Lando Norris.”
Offering more insight into Ricciardo the driver, Narain said, “He was a great character. Outside of the car, he liked to have fun and be the happy-go-lucky kid but once in the car he was very quick and had a great work ethic. He worked really hard.”
When the car drives you
Identifying what could be a problem, Narain said, “There is a basic driving style that you build over your career as muscle memory. Then there are things you can do to adapt like springs, dampers and front-wing angles. But here it seems the car and the platform do not suit him at all.
Going nowhere: Having finished as high as third in the drivers’ standings during his time at Red Bull, Ricciardo currently sits at a lowly 12th.
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“When that happens, you don’t have the confidence in the car. So instead of you driving the car, the car is driving you.”
Noting that Ricciardo has previously fared well against his teammates, Narain said, “The fact that Norris has blown him away wouldn’t have helped his confidence either.”
Ricciardo recently said in an interview that, unlike him, Norris has only driven McLarens all his career and sometimes that can help; for Ricciardo, the knowledge of what race-winning cars can do had perhaps not worked in his favour.
When asked about it, Narain said, “It is true that Norris knows the team and the car well for a while but, at the same time, this is where experience counts and you would expect someone like Ricciardo, who has been around for a decade, to find a way to adapt.”
With all doors shut for next year, the Australian has said he is looking for a reserve role. There are rumours he could go back to Red Bull or even Mercedes. Such a move could help him stay in touch with the F1 world and enable him to spot possible openings for 2024. But can doing simulation work fulfil a pure racer? Besides, there is no guarantee that either team, with its superstar drivers, would want to upset the applecart.
The other option is to sit out a year and come back fresh. It worked for Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, who were out for two years but were able to return to decent teams. Unfortunately for Ricciardo, he has been forced to walk away with his reputation at its lowest. A year’s absence could pull the plug on his F1 career.
Whatever he decides, he knows there are no guarantees about his future. Ricciardo made his name in 2014 with his breathtaking late-braking overtakes, serving out a drubbing to Vettel. But now the 33-year-old could very well be driving his last Grand Prix just like his old teammate.
