Current Daniel Ricciardo

I noticed young Daniel didn't have his own thread so thought I'd give him on as sure he'll be around for a good few years.

Born in 1989 (that makes him 22 before you do the maths) this aussie started karting at the age of 9 and in 2005 entered the Western Australian Formula Ford Championship as a privateer driving a car that was 15 years old at the time and managed to finish 8th. He won a scholarship to compete in Formula BMW Asia the following year. As we all know he eventually became involved in the Red Bull young driver programme after winning the British Formula 3 championship in 2009.

Became Red Bull's test driver and has now stepped up to drive for HRT. Has been really hyped as the next big thing by the Red Bull team and the press. Eddie Jordan described him as a future world champion before he'd even done his first Grand Prix. The truth is though he has not set the world alight at HRT. How can one set the world alight at HRT I hear you ask to which I say - good point! Although he has beaten Liuzzi twice already in the races I believe he needs to get on top of him in quali too. Also he's being beaten by quite a way in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series by both Robert Wickens and Jean-Eric Vergne.

So Ricciardo - future number 1 or going going gone?

 

[Il_leone]

I am not sure why people are beating down Ricciardo compared to Verstappen. The man has won 5 races all for Red Bull , beaten a world champion teammate and regularly finished in the points in the top 6 and pulled off some of the best overtaking moves I've seen

He finished behind Kyvat in 2015 but he was genuinely the faster driver more than not that year . It appears Verstappen has got the 1 lap speed over Ricciardo who seems to know how to pace himself well during the races.

 

[Il_leone]

This maybe of topic but Hamilton was over 0.5 seconds faster than Bottas in quali which was ultimately reflected as well on race day

Bottas was caught slightly napping from Hamilton's gamesmanship on Vettel at the restart but with the long drag from La Source he was a sitting duck and then got caught in the sandwich

He did not weave left or right which was fair play to him otherwise he would have caused a big accident down the straight to Ricciardo and Raikkonen

 

[Rutherford]

Il_leone no one is beating down on Ricciardo. He is special though, otherwise he wouldn't drink out of his shoe.

 

[teabagyokel]

Regardless of what happened after the restart, Rutherford, Ricciardo had no right whatsoever to get past Bottas and Raikkonen, both in faster cars with greater straight-line speeds. I'm not about to say that the Finns' performance level was sufficient, but I don't think it fair to criticise Ricciardo for delivering the best result that he could possibly have done.

 

[Rutherford]

teabagyokel I'm not criticising him, it's a fact that those other two drivers were seemingly sleeping and it's proven by the lap times. I just don't get the hype.

 

[Il_leone]

I'd very much doubt Bottas and Raikkonen were sleeping if they were trying to race at 200mph .... Ricciardo did the impossible to be honest by passing them both and using the slip stream to good effect

 

[Rutherford]

Il_leone Well, I did post the lap times here: Current - Daniel Ricciardo

Explain why they are nearly one second off the pace of their teammates then, despite the gap between Vettel and Hamilton being much closer.
Why did they never come back at Ricciardo with those lap times Vettel and Hamilton would have easily gotten within DRS range of Ricciardo.

If it was impossible how did Ricciardo manage to do it, is he some kind of god, is he greeted as Lord Ricciardo?

 

[Rutherford]

If facts and figures aren't even convincing it's utterly pointless to have a discussion about it... it's like claiming the earth is flat despite evidence proving the opposite.

 

[Il_leone]

They were in the dirty air of the Red Bull and for some reason neither were on the pace

Kimi said his car did not feel right and he could not make those tyres work whereas Bottas simply had no answer to Hamilton's pace all weekend. Ricciardo somehow was able to keep them at bay intelligently to make up for the straightline speed deficit

 

[Rutherford]

Il_leone Are you going to decide whether it was Ricciardo or the car and his opponents, because:

They were in the dirty air of the Red Bull and for some reason neither were on the pace

and then you argue:

Ricciardo somehow was able to keep them at bay intelligently to make up for the straightline speed deficit

and:

Kimi said his car did not feel right and he could not make those tyres work whereas Bottas simply had no answer to Hamilton's pace all weekend.

So, I conclude it wasn't Ricciardo, but the lacklustre performance of his opponents which enabled him to take P3.

 

[teabagyokel]

I just don't get the hype.

The hype is that he's beaten people in better performing machinery. Yes, because they're not quite at the top level, but there's an implication that Ricciardo therefore is.

As for comparing Verstappen and Ricciardo, we can't make a judgement on the two of them in race trim because, for whatever reason, one or the other tends to be in the shower by lap 10.

They've had only 3 finishes together all year:

Driver	China	Monaco	Britain
RIC	4th	3rd	5th
VER	3rd	5th	4th

I think it is most unfortunate that there's barely been any combat between the two of them, but I'm going to have to reserve judgement until they can have a run of both finishing races.

 

[Rutherford]

Il_leone Don't beat down on the poor bloke.

 

[vintly]

I think Ricciardo is marginally overrated, that eventually he'll be outshone by Verstappen and never win a championship.

 

[RasputinLives]

Rutherford just out of interest how do Ricciardo's lap times after the safety car stack up with the ones before?

 

[RasputinLives]

Just read your thing about stats Rutherford and found it interesting. Do you genuinely think the lap stats prove (I mean actually prove) that Kimi and Bottas "fell asleep"?. I mean actual fact? I think the stats are used well to present a hypothetical argument but it's a snapshot of stats used for a purpose. I Wouldn't count it as evidence.

The indisputable facts are that Ricciardo was 3rd in front of Kimi and Bottas who had both been consistently faster than him all weekend. I'm not sure why you feel the need to do this down? It's very odd.

By the way you can prove anything with statistics and 56% of all people know this.

 

[Il_leone]

vintly I think Vettel is very overrated since Ricciardo managed to thrash him in the same car

 

[vintly]

Il_leone The idea persists, but on inspection it doesn't hold much water. Vettel's driving prowess is not in doubt, and while I'm not saying Ricciardo is a slouch, beating Vettel when he clearly wasn't driving to his capabilities is not really a measure to show how good Ricciardo is. I touched on this before, it was as if Vettel was taking a year off when he lost to Ricciardo. Do you think he'll win a WDC?

 

[teabagyokel]

Could he beat a top team-mate on a fallow year or who had unreliability? Yes, that's been proved.

Therefore, in the right situation (á la Button or Rosberg) he could win a World Championship.

 

[RasputinLives]

I Don't think either Ricciardo or Verstappen will win a world championship.

 

[Rutherford]

Just read your thing about stats Rutherford and found it interesting. Do you genuinely think the lap stats prove (I mean actually prove) that Kimi and Bottas "fell asleep"?. I mean actual fact? I think the stats are used well to present a hypothetical argument but it's a snapshot of stats used for a purpose. I Wouldn't count it as evidence.

The indisputable facts are that Ricciardo was 3rd in front of Kimi and Bottas who had both been consistently faster than him all weekend. I'm not sure why you feel the need to do this down? It's very odd.

I thought we were having a discussion which arises through different opinions. I mean could leave this forum, if discussions and differing opinions aren’t wanted here.

Il_leone provided explanations for why Bottas and Raikkonen were slower in their last stint.

It is also irrelevant whether or not they were faster before, because they were factually slower when behind Ricciardo, but numbers are being ignored anyway.