The McLaren had slightly unusual handling traits which Norris had adapted to – but certainly did not like. Ricciardo was somewhat puzzled when he first tried it in pre-season testing. He just could make no sense of what it required from him, specifically in the entry phase to slow and medium speed corners, where the braking and cornering overlapped. He bumped into Carlos Sainz, his predecessor there, at an airport who said, “Not easy, eh?” immediately understanding Ricciardo’s confusion. “Thanks for telling me!” Ricciardo joked back, but beneath the jokes has always been an intense competitor. When at Red Bull that competitor had not enjoyed Verstappen’s increasingly formidable performance, but at least he’d been able to take him on, compete hard with him. The first part of ’21 at McLaren was way worse than that – he could get nowhere near Norris. The more he tried to deconstruct the way he needed to drive, to re-programme his muscle memory, the worse it seemed to get.
Then there was Monza, a circuit where his technique shortfall wasn’t so penalising, and magically everything fell into place and he won the team the first grand prix of the Zak Brown era. So even in the midst of this most puzzling drop-off in form, he delivered a puzzlingly perfect performance. It might have been the platform on which to build for ’22 when, with the new regulations in place and a clean sheet design, everything would surely be very different. Except it was worse. He was further away from Norris than ever, averaging over 0.3sec slower in qualifying. No serious F1 driver can be 0.3sec slower than any team-mate. It’s just not an acceptable or sustainable performance. Reluctantly, McLaren insisted he leave, even if it meant paying.
Ricciardo waves farewell at the end of 2022
Jakub Porzycki via Getty Images
That seemed to be that, his F1 career over, free to enjoy his California lifestyle and to concentrate on his new businesses. But then he got a role back at Red Bull – as a test driver and ambassador. Still, no-one was seriously thinking he’d ever race for the team again. Even as Sergio Perez began having his own crisis of confidence alongside Verstappen. At much the same time rookie Nyck de Vries was failing to show any form in the junior team. So 34-year-old Ricciardo now returns as a stand-in for a failed rookie at the junior team as he bids to impress the big team he left all those years ago and return to glory and redemption. It sounds like a film script.
How will he do? Impossible to say. The guy is an enigma. He’s hugely likeable and that personality brings a lot to F1. But that can’t sustain a career. He now arrives in an uncompetitive car, with some strange handling limitations, alongside a quick young driver who is very attuned to it. Daniel is full of surprises so don’t write him off. But really? Are we really going to be able to put those italics in a different place one day and say, ‘Daniel Ricciardo is back?’