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?

 

[RasputinLives]

After the terrible start to the year in Australia, 2017 is turning into a pretty good year for Ricciardo. Great run of results and seems to be genuinely competing with the front 4. He even got the quali monkey off his back in Austria.

 

[Rutherford]

He's definitely on a roll. It would be nice to see Verstappen up front too. Now that Red Bull have caught up in terms of development, we'd have three teams competing for wins - although Red Bull isn't as competitive as Ferrari and Mercedes yet, but they can put up a battle.

 

[Il_leone]

Daniel Ricciardo needs a car he deserves to be fighting for the championship

 

[vintly]

I was predicting a potentially tough year for Ricciardo, was expecting Young Max to have the edge. Could still happen if the gremlins are fixed, but it's good to see Ricciardo up there.

 

[Il_leone]

Ricciardo has done well in managing the internal politics at Red Bull. He could have been peeved off when Verstappen brake tested him in China but instead he just made sure he delivers on race day and using his experience

 

[teabagyokel]

In his interview on C4, Ricciardo was accused of calling Verstappen a sore loser. His reply?
"I actually called him a fucking sore loser."

 

[vintly]

Danny's been rather flattered by Verstappen's car failures this year, but it will have been noticed how he's being regularly beaten in quali and on track (until said failures). I think he was also flattered by Vettel's poor last season at Red Bull - put down to Ricciardo's pressure, but I think it could have had more to do with Seb almost having a sabbatical that year. If Young Max gets a run of reliability he'll need to pull his finger out.

 

[siffert_fan]

Dan clearly understands the racer adage of "to finish first, you must first finish". It is quite possible that the reliability issues for Max are entirely due to his pushing the car too hard.

 

[Titch]

He should be able to push his car though.

 

[vintly]

It is quite possible that the reliability issues for Max are entirely due to his pushing the car too hard.

Do you honestly think that Max has got where he is by driving cars to the point of wrecking them, that that's been allowed to happen, that Red Bull and the rest of the paddock don't know this and that Red Bull make cars that can be broke by a bit of aggressive handling??

 

[siffert_fan]

Does the name Gilles Villeneuve mean anything to you?

Furthermore, today's F1 cars have to last multiple races. A driver has to take that into account from the start of the season.

 

[teabagyokel]

I think it's fair to say that Red Bull would not be announcing it from the rooftops if their cars were broken by aggressive handling.

And now to Christian Horner on the pit wall...
CH: Yeah, no, erm... Max was very unlucky that we designed a shitebox that can be broken by anyone who drives it with any kind of vigour. Daniel is doing really well to nurse his falling-off bodywork onto another podium made surprisingly possible by insufficiently talented Finns.

I don't know if Verstappen is Icarusing his car, but I suspect the Red Bull is less reliable because of the lengths they have to push in order to pull up to the rear wing of the other two.

 

[vintly]

siffert_fan Gilles Villeneuve was a racer who hasn't been around for 30 something years, I know of him yes. I'm intrigued though why you think Max's car failures could be entirely down to him...?

 

[RasputinLives]

Whatever anyone says about Danny being 'lucky' that Max is having mechanical issues you can not deny his results are out performing that car. If he gets a sniff he comes alive. Did you see him jump Bottas off the restart at Spa and then hold off Kimi on much faster tyres? I'm not sure Verstappen could have done any better even if he had been there.

I actually think people need to stop comparing him to Max and look at his actual performance this season. I think it's prob one of his best years race wise.

 

[Rutherford]

He didn’t do anything special to hold Raikkonen off though. The gap was at nearly 4 seconds by the end of the race, in comparison to Vettel who was chasing a Mercedes where the gap was only 2.5 seconds, it seems to me that Raikkonen fell asleep again and that the ultra softs didn’t really seem to work for more than on lap, neither for Vettel nor for Raikkonen.

Verstappen is the only one we can compare Ricciardo to, so why should we stop?
Ricciardo was stronger last season in qualifying and the races, but this year it's Verstappen who has got the upper hand. If it weren’t for the six retirements he’d be leading Ricciardo in the standings.

Horner has said (Autosport Interview) that Verstappen and Ricciardo have both had issues. Ricciardo has them in one of the FP sessions, while Verstappen has them in the race.

Red Bull have always had a lot of issues, even in their championship winning years. Webber and Vettel regularly had KERS defects during qualifying sessions and races and Vettel had a few mechanical failures in ‘10 and ‘12 which made the championship so close. Then again in ‘14 where he had issues in 5 out of the first 7 races.
Red Bull need to re-think the design, the other Renault powered cars never seem to have that many issues.

 

[RasputinLives]

Renault powered cars never seem to have that many issues.

Tell that to Jolyon Palmer

I'm only saying stop comparing because there is nothing to currently compare. Max has had too many mechanical issues for us to know how they shape up against each other so why focus on it? How good Ricciardo's season is should be based on the results he's getting and as he's keeps getting results that the car has no right too then I'd say he's doing pretty dam good. Could Verstappen's results be better than his? Maybe. Who knows. But you can't dismiss Ricciardo's results just because Max wasn't there to race against.

As for not doing anything special in spa: If Verstappen has leap frogged a Merc and a Ferrari with a daredevil overtake off a restart and then held them off, he'd have got driver of the day and about 4 could inches in most publications. That car had no right to be on the podium yesterday and it was. Respect where respect is due. Saying Ricciardo is good Isn't the same as saying he is better than Verstappen.

 

[FB]

It seems inappropriate to post this in Danny's thread but Red Bull ain't telling as to why Max's car failed. From their website:

Max began the race from fifth place in front of a sea of orange-clad supporters in the grandstands, but their delight at the Dutchman holding that position at the start turned to disappointment on lap eight when Max suddenly lost power and was forced to pull over at the side of the track on the Kemmel Straight.

Here's the link if you want to read the full thing including Red Bull's "big up" for Ricciardo - Mixed Fortunes In Spa | Red Bull Racing Formula One Team

 

[Rutherford]

I'm only saying stop comparing because there is nothing to currently compare. Max has had too many mechanical issues for us to know how they shape up against each other so why focus on it? How good Ricciardo's season is should be based on the results he's getting and as he's keeps getting results that the car has no right too then I'd say he's doing pretty dam good. Could Verstappen's results be better than his? Maybe. Who knows. But you can't dismiss Ricciardo's results just because Max wasn't there to race against.

They do always race against each other until one of the suffers a failure and thus far, Verstappen has always been ahead of Ricciardo. His results could definitely be better than currently is the case.

As for not doing anything special in spa: If Verstappen has leap frogged a Merc and a Ferrari with a daredevil overtake off a restart and then held them off, he'd have got driver of the day and about 4 could inches in most publications. That car had no right to be on the podium yesterday and it was. Respect where respect is due. Saying Ricciardo is good Isn't the same as saying he is better than Verstappen.

If, if, if, why this hypothetical reasoning?
It is the same with Ricciardo and doesn't just apply to Verstappen.
What was so special about his race in Silverstone, people were hailing him as if he'd won the race, but he only raced cars that were 1- 2 secs slower than the Red Bull. Formula 1 has a two class hierarchy, class 1 - Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull - and then with an exceptional gap there's the rest, as we saw with Verstappen in that race, the Red Bull was capable of fighting the Ferraris.

Raikkonen was 4 secs behind Ricciardo, he didn't have to fend him off. Raikkonen fell asleep at the wheel just like Bottas did look at where their teammates finished the race. That's the reason why there is no need for Hamilton or Vettel to have a clause in their contract stating that they're the number one drivers, because their teammates can't keep up anyway.

 

[RasputinLives]

What's your evidence for Kimi and Bottas falling asleep at the wheel?

 

[Rutherford]

What's your evidence for Kimi and Bottas falling asleep at the wheel?

My evidence are lap times and they don't lie:

Raikkonen and Bottas were losing much more time to their teammates than to Ricciardo, obviously because they are supposed to be in the faster car.