Formula 1 can be very cruel. Not even a valuable track record protects any rider from criticism and, sometimes, from unfair opinions, as the great champions well know who, when their career begins to fall, have had to accept very different judgments than those they were used to. to receive.
At 33 years old, Daniel Ricciardo has already given and received a lot from Formula 1: 222 races, 8 victories, 3 pole positions and 32 podiums. But thinking of Ricciardo brings up a common feeling, even in the paddock, that of a sense of dissatisfaction with what could have been, and which suddenly stopped on the day of the Australian’s move to Renault and, above all, McLaren.
When it comes to evaluating what Daniel has managed to do since his time at McLaren F1, more or less the same evaluations arise, even among those initiated in the sport: “It cannot be explained”, “It is strange”, “It is not possible “.
And yet, after a year and a half, the situation remains, in general, the same: Lando Norris is in front and Ricciardo behind, with a difference that is sometimes small and sometimes almost hard to believe. And when things take this turn, doubts about the future increase. And this story is no exception.
Ricciardo has a contract with McLaren that ends at the end of 2023, so everything should go well, as confirmed by Zak Brown, Andreas Seidl and Daniel himself. But will it really be so? Motorsport.com caught up with Ricciardo to discuss all this and more.
Question: Daniel, do you still feel the joy of driving an F1 car?
Answer: “Yes. To be honest, the joy of being on the track and racing is greater than ever. But if you were to tell me ‘Daniel, we are going to stay at Le Castellet after the race weekend because you have to do 200 laps of test’, well let’s say I don’t get very excited, I live waiting for the lights to go out and the competition to start, and that’s the moment that gives me the most joy”.
Q: What has changed compared to ten years ago, when you came to Formula 1?
A: “When you are at the beginning, in your first season, even the opportunity to do a test excites you, but basically I have always been fascinated by the fight, the confrontation. Let’s say that the older I get, the more I like Sundays, and the closer to the start of the race, the more butterflies in my stomach increase.”
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, on the starting grid with an engineer from the Woking team
Q: Due to COVID-19, you were forced to be unable to return to your family in Australia for almost two years. What impact did that have?
A: “I spent 21 months away from home, which was difficult. I’m very close to my family, my parents and grandparents are getting older, and I went through some sad times, it wasn’t easy. Not to the point where I couldn’t go on, but with time you start to realize that something is missing. When I won last year in Monza, I would have liked to celebrate it with my friends and family, but obviously it wasn’t possible.”
Q: Let’s move on to the 2022 car. It’s already halfway through the season, do you think there have been any surprises in terms of driving or has everything been as expected?
A: “I didn’t know what to expect. I knew it was going to be a stiffer car, and I knew it wouldn’t allow going over curbs like in the past. But when I first drove it in Barcelona I was positively surprised, there was more grip than expected.” The performance was better than expected, but I didn’t expect to have to deal with porpoising , which I didn’t even know what it was. last year”.
Q: A question that many will have asked. Last year Lando had the advantage of knowing both the team and the car well, but this year he is starting from the same base. However, the gap with his teammate is still there. How is it possible?
Q: “It is true that the car is completely different from the 2021 one, as the regulations dictate, but there is something, like a kind of team DNA, that is still there. Some of the things from last year that I had problems with are also present in this car, so I’m still trying to understand, and I think we’re starting to understand better what it is.
“Obviously I have tried to describe as much as I can, explaining how the car behaves, but to really understand where the problem is you need the help of the engineers and the tools that we have at our disposal, because it can be something with aerodynamics, or geometry, do you understand me?
Lando Norris ahead of Daniel Ricciardo: he is a constant at McLaren
“I think we started to understand better what it is about, and Lando also complains about it, only with time he has probably got used to it and handles it better. There have been days when I have found myself eight tenths behind him , and frankly I don’t think that’s possible, I don’t think there’s another team where there’s such a margin between the two drivers, it’s too big a difference. For my part, I’m giving everything I can, and I’m starting to think that we are getting closer to a solution.
Q: How frustrating is it to hear less than reassuring rumors in the paddock about your future? He still has a contract for next year, so everything must be clear and defined, but at the same time, he also knows that when there are such persistent rumors, they are not always necessarily speculation.
A: “It’s one of those situations where the more people talk, the more the story grows, and everyone puts their own spin on it. That’s why before the French Grand Prix I wanted to make things clear, I know my future and I wanted to do an official statement to say: I stay in Formula 1 with McLaren”.
Q: So you will be at the start of the next Formula 1 world championship at the wheel of McLaren?
A: “Yes”.
Q: In the last five years you have changed three teams. Is it true that each team has its own soul, different from the others? Do you now feel totally integrated and supported?
Q: “Yes. And, you know, I think I’m going to stay with McLaren for a long time. There are a lot of people in the team who have been working overtime to help me try to understand the car better, to try to make me win with this car. So that the team has put a lot of effort and energy into this. It’s a challenge, not only for me, the whole team wants to win again, and for my part I want to pursue this challenge, I want to take it on. I don’t want a change of scenery, I want everything what we are working on will work in the end”.
Q: Do you try to feel the car as “yours”?
A: “Yes. It has to be a part of you, you have to be connected in some way.”
Q: Both last year and this season there was a lot of talk about your feeling problems with the car. Can you tell now what it is? Is it a matter of two or three tenths that, in the end, comes from your feelings with the car? Or something bigger?
A: “I think it’s a relatively small thing, but sometimes it has a big effect on timing. It’s like dancing with a partner, if you’re not in sync, you can’t dance. So if I feel a little off with the machine, then I don’t feel like I can do everything I could and would like to. It’s not an excuse, but it’s the feeling I’m trying to pursue, and it’s something I haven’t found yet.”
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36
Q: After a year and a half, do you have enough energy to keep going?
A: “Yes, absolutely. When you get good results it’s easier to manage your energy, but when you go through times like the one I’m going through, you strengthen your character. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but last year in Monza it was an easy race for me , and also fun, there were no problems”.
Q: Beyond the speculations and what your sporting future will be, have you seriously thought about what you will do when you are no longer in Formula 1?
A: “I’m aware that I won’t be in this paddock forever, so at some point I’m going to have to start doing something different. It occurred to me to think: ‘okay, what would I like to do at some point?’ But not in such a way that I’m going to do anything concrete, for now I’ve just been imagining what I’d like to do.”
“In the end, they are quick thoughts, what I really have in my head every day is to continue doing what I do. It continues to excite me, my head tells me, my instinct tells me, my heart tells me, and as much as I there are bad days that hurt, in the end a desire always prevails: “fuck, I want to do it, I can do it, I know I can and I believe in it”. And as long as I continue to feel this feeling, I hope to continue here.”
