[Driver] Daniel Ricciardo

[GTRMagic]

This is a hard thread to write..

Mr Ricciardo is massively underwhelming in his papaya orange McLaren this season. Qualifying is not his friend, nor is race pace against his teammate

Is it car? Is it driver? Is the dream still alive?
Would Mr Ricciardo have been better at McLaren had they kept the Renault engine...

I genuinely hope this isnt the beginning of the end... but it doesnt look promising so far....

[2 litre Touring Car Star]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Is it car? Is it driver? (

Your perception is the issue.

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Mr Ricciardo is massively underwhelming in his papaya orange McLaren this season. Qualifying is not his friend, nor is race pace against his teammate

Head to head, Norris has been given two freebies so far (Imola and France), But this is never acknowledged on any forum. Hence, your OP.

[Aysedasi]

His perception is not the issue. It's as obvious as the nose on your face. There was an expectation from many that Danny Ric would render Lando a clear #2 in the team, but he is significantly underperforming. There must be a reason for that, we know he's good.

So, is it car or driver?

[chillibowl]

Right now, I think its more the driver. He doesnt seem like the fun guy anymore. 1 or 2 good results and he's back hopefully.

Very anecdotal on my part, but a few sports i follow have seen athletes struggle over the past 18 months. Of course this happens every season but surely lack of crowds, covid protocols, difficulties in getting home has a bigger impact on certain personality types.

But thats just my perception.

[crmalcolm]

A more positive assessment of Ricciardo's situation:
'Missed in Daniel Ricciardo’s French Grand Prix drive was the most clear sign yet that he has finally found his feet at McLaren.

The Aussie drove at his aggressive best after starting 10th on the grid to finish sixth, giving McLaren a successful day the office with Lando Norris finishing fifth.

On the surface, it is easy for Formula 1 pundits to chalk Monday morning’s race up as another day when Norris bested his teammate.'

There is quite a lot of reasoning our there discussing his recent performances. Currently, I think it is too early to tell definitively. He has admitted himself that - 'starting to get a bit more comfortable in the car, a bit of confidence in racing situations', having previously said that he is in a quirky car that must be driven on a “knife’s edge” to extract its full potential.

As he beings to adjust, I think he will be back challenging for more representative results.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by 2 litre Touring Car Star

Your perception is the issue.

Lol. This thread has real potential to be entertaining!

Richard

[seanyb505]

Well like, that's just your perception, man

[Richard C]

So beside snickering at the "perception" comment. I will try to answer this seriously.

I do think it is interesting to look at the four driver who are not... Rookies or are re-entering F1 after a break (remove Alonso, Tsunodo, both Haas drivers) and look to see how well..

1. The came up to speed in their new car/team
2. How they have been fairing against their teammate.

As I wanted to do something quick and to not delve deeply into per race "why", I am ignoring situations in which one driver or the other either DNF or DNS and I am only looking at finishing position.

Perez (Aston Martin to Red Bull) vs. Verstappen
Avg Delta: 3.86 positions (advantage Verstappen)
STD of per race delta: 2.79

If you were to exclude his second race, his numbers would be much better. Overall, while Max is beating him, Perez has gotten up to speed pretty quickly. Perez decision seems to have been the right thing for RBR.

Sainz (MeLaren to Ferrari) vs. Leclerc
Avg Delta: 1.38 positions (advantage Leclerc)
STD of per race delta: 3.40

Sainz is generally up to speed pretty quickly at Ferrari. Great decision for Ferrari.

Vettel (Ferrari to Aston Martin) vs. Stroll
Avg Delta: 2 positions (advantage Stroll)
STD of per race delta: 3.42

Signs that Vettel is getting his feet under himself, but a VERY slow start for him at the team. Stroll seems to be no slouch. Need more time to see who will get the upper hand

Ricciardo (Renault to McLaren) vs. Norris
Avg Delta: 3.75 positions (advantage Norris)
STD of per race delta: 3.54

I think many eyes were on McLaren to see what the relative performance of these two would be. Starts/Podiums/Win stats for each are...

Norris: 46/3/0
Ricciardo: 196/31/7

While you can argue that Vettel is in the twilight of his F1 career, I think expectations for Ricciardo vs Norris was high. On paper, Ricciardo has it all over Norris. But Ricciardo has generated a few head scratching results. He clearly is in some type of funk. My guess it's a combo of the car not fitting his style and Norris' early results has gotten into his head. Plus, Given Norris is still new and seem to be pretty good. You would expect him to improve. So Norris is probably the real deal as well.

All four drivers here who switched teams have had to adjust. Some better than. To me (my perception!) is that Ricciardo and Vettel have struggled the most. For Ricciardo its particularly damning that the car is clearly quick and he is up against a less experienced driver.

My analysis is VERY quick, dirty and no doubt has some holes in it, but I see some correlation between this and Schummy's deeper analysis https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156268

Richard

[Alan52]

What is a bad sign is the consistency of his gap behind Lando and a couple of moments in races that have been just embarrassing.
For the first several races he was around half a second behind Lando in nearly every session.That gap seems to be down to 0.3 now but is nearly always there.
In the races being lapped by Lando at Monaco was bad but nearly equally Styria today where Lando came out after his stop still ahead of Dan who hadn’t stopped.
Is there a performance clause in his contract?Doubt it but if things don’t change by the end of the year they might look for a way to move him out.

[peebee2]

As I wrote in another thread he’s been very inconsistent for several seasons now, and I thought was lucky to get the McLaren drive. He needs to improve soon or his F1 career will peter out. I can see them swapping him with O’Ward.

[S griffin]

Danny is starting to get to grips with the car. He was unlucky in Austria. After a great start he had the loss of power that was quickly rectified, but by then had already done the damage. Managed to gain back a position or two

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by peebee2

As I wrote in another thread he’s been very inconsistent for several seasons now, and I thought was lucky to get the McLaren drive. He needs to improve soon or his F1 career will peter out. I can see them swapping him with O’Ward.

It's actually impressive that every sentence here is wrong

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Skam85

It's actually impressive that every sentence here is wrong

He needs to improve soon

Apart from this maybe....?

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Skam85

It's actually impressive that every sentence here is wrong

I knew the Aussies would be along to defend him.

If you were more impartial you would see the faults. He is a lovely guy and can be very fast, but is so inconsistent, which drives the engineers bananas. This has only been getting worse in recent seasons and will cost him his drive unless he can reverse the trend.

[bathurst77]

Im an aussie, and a number 1 dan fan, but for the most part he did a good but not amazing job at Reggie's and now he is lost. Somewhere something has gone awry and needs addressing. a mental, physical or the people he is with.

Or has he lost the hunger? he is one of the highest paid drivers, maybe he subconsciously is only going 9.6 tenths most of the time.

at his best he can beat max and lulu, but he hasnt been at his best except for brief moments the last season or two.... starting to look like dan at his best is better than max or lulu's average days.

he needs to go into the room full of mirrors take a long hard look at himself and come back ANGRY, he aint young any more. Its time to **** or get off the pot. He is headed in the same direction as Weber.. very good, but made some poor choices, and not quite good enough

[TrapezeArtist]

Something has gone wrong for Danny Ric, starting from his latter days at RBR. I suspect his confidence has taken a battering and it's going to be difficult to come back from that. A poor showing at Renault might be excused as wrong place, wrong time. But now there's a pattern developing. He does still pull the occasional demon out-braking manouevre though.

[steve_r]

Yeah. Can't help feeling that Ricciardo is going to come good at some point, but there have been a lot of disappointments and (publically at least) no convincing reasons for his underperformance. Flashes of speed, sandwiched with disappointing results.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Im an aussie, and a number 1 dan fan, but for the most part he did a good but not amazing job at Reggie's and now he is lost. Somewhere something has gone awry and needs addressing. a mental, physical or the people he is with.

Or has he lost the hunger? he is one of the highest paid drivers, maybe he subconsciously is only going 9.6 tenths most of the time.

at his best he can beat max and lulu, but he hasnt been at his best except for brief moments the last season or two.... starting to look like dan at his best is better than max or lulu's average days.

he needs to go into the room full of mirrors take a long hard look at himself and come back ANGRY, he aint young any more. Its time to **** or get off the pot. He is headed in the same direction as Weber.. very good, but made some poor choices, and not quite good enough

Yep. Tend to agree with most of that. But I don't think he is better (or ever has been) than Lewis or Max at their best. When the stars combine in the perfect way for him, he's great to watch and yes, he can win on those days but right now he's in the doldrums....

[2 litre Touring Car Star]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

His perception is not the issue. It's as obvious as the nose on your face. There was an expectation from many that Danny Ric would render Lando a clear #2 in the team, but he is significantly underperforming. There must be a reason for that, we know he's good.

So, is it car or driver?

Neither.

What's missing is chemistry.

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Lol. This thread has real potential to be entertaining!

Richard

It's possibly a provocative comment. but opinions like what GTR has drives me nuts. He's not the only one that has it on various forums I've seen.

Can you imagine if GTR was the team manager at McLaren? That sort of concern or doubt would creep into the rest of the team, including Ricciardo, and would exacerbate whatever weakness there is unnecessarily.

A good team manager would recognise that it's not easy and just let Ricciardo work through it. At the moment Norris is on good form, so let him have as many cracks of the whip as possible.

Completley alarmist.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by 2 litre Touring Car Star

What's missing is chemistry.

If it was just "time" (he needs to get comfortable, etc.) then it is just a matter of time. And hopefully that will be quick. If it is something else such as chemistry. Then that is unlikely to fix itself on it's own.

So chemistry is the issue. Chemistry between what? Driver and team? Driver and car? Something else? What is the solution that will allow him to perform to expectations?

Richard

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

...Chemistry between what? Driver and team? Driver and car?

seriously Richard, the answer is neither!

the problem is that DRic has to work through it on his own because he is the driver which logically means it has nothing to do with the driver!

it also has nothing to do with the car and certainly the 'car' cannot ever be taken as a synonym for the word 'team' so therefore it also has nothing to do with the car.

who this manager then is remains a mystery of course but so far i know its not GTRMagic and after your post now i know its also not you!

i highlighted certain portions of my own post to highlight my awesome communication skills!

you're welcome!

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

who this manager then is remains a mystery of course but so far i know its not GTRMagic and after your post now i know its also not you!

Sadly, I don't manage any of the F1 Teams. If anyone wants to extend a job offer, please message me!

Originally Posted by 2 litre Touring Car Star

A good team manager would recognise that it's not easy and just let Ricciardo work through it.

I would be a terrible team manager. I wouldn't just let the driver work through it, I would probably try to work with him to figure out what is going on. Plus not ignore the whispers (such as this thread) and address it head on with the driver, but in a positive way. And I fully expect some version of this is happening at McLaren.

Regardless of what is the cause and what level of support he may be receiving to move forward. His lack of form is noteworthy.

Richard

[Richard C]

McLaren race reports calls out a temporary power issue (which was later resolved) as the cause for Ricciardo loosing a number of positions and then that setting the tone for the rest of the race.

https://www.mclaren.com/racing/2021/...an-grand-prix/

Richard

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by 2 litre Touring Car Star

A good team manager would recognise that it's not easy and just let Ricciardo work through it.

Sounds more like a team manager who would soon be an ex-team manager.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I would be a terrible team manager. I wouldn't just let the driver work through it, I would probably try to work with him to figure out what is going on...

going off topic, but this is always what i liked about Lauda being such an integral part of that Merc team. likewise with Ocon, i feel Prost must be helping him along. Button is doing this with Williams i believe. RB have Marko to mixed results.

maybe manager was not quite the correct position to suggest but who does Mclaren use for driver coaching/mentoring? do they have a former driver working in this capacity?