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F1 pundit Damon Hill drew parallels with Daniel Ricciardo's current situation at RB with what happened at McLaren, where his early confidence worked against him.
When Ricciardo had announced in 2020 that he was moving from Renault to the Woking based squad in 2021, he was expected to assume a leadership role.
The driver had a brilliant 2020 F1 season with Renault, where he outperformed the McLaren drivers at the time, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, and finished ahead of them on points. His stint at the Woking-based squad did not go as planned, though, as Ricciardo was completely outclassed by Norris.
The performance was so poor that the Australian was fired a year before his contract expired. Daniel Ricciardo did have a somewhat decent return to racing with AlphaTauri in 2023. The driver was aiming to impress Red Bull with his performance this season and make a case as a replacement for Sergio Perez in 2025.
That hasn't happened in the first three races, so Hill could not help but draw comparisons to the driver's run in McLaren, where he was quite confident before his stint, but it did not pan out the way he would have wanted. The same situation appears to be unraveling at RB at the moment.
Looking back at Daniel Ricciardo's cold jibe at Lando Norris that ended up being very ironic, Hill said on the F1 Nation podcast:
“It’s reminiscent of what happened when he went to McLaren. I remember – I think it was at Imola, doing some stuff with Sky – we were interviewing Lando.
"The news had come that he was going to be driving for McLaren alongside Lando, and he walked past, went up to him and said in a kind of jokey way: ‘I’m going to end you.’"
He added:
“I remember thinking: ‘Ouch, that was a bit of a bold comment’ – and it (turned out to be) the other way around.
"He never felt comfortable in McLaren – he was hunting all the time for setup – and the same story is coming out now from the RB. There’s only so many times you can do that.”
Hill feels Daniel Ricciardo might have become too fussy as a driver
Hill speculated that one of the reasons behind this lack of results could be the adaptability factor.
Whenever a driver matures in his career, there are specific characteristics he demands from the car; when that isn't delivered, he's unable to perform. Hill feels Daniel Ricciardo is struggling from the same as is evident from his comments. Hill said:
"Maybe he’s one of these drivers who’s matured too quickly and you get to the point where you become fussy about how you like your car.
"When they’re very young, they don’t ask the question. Look at Ollie Bearman (in Saudi Arabia) – they get one go, they don’t know anything else. They just drive."
He added:
“Once you’ve had lots of experience, sometimes the experience overwrites everything else and you’re looking for that good experience again, in the setup and a feeling from a car, when it’s not going to come because it’s a different car.
Daniel Ricciardo will be hoping for a better run in Japan this weekend. The Australian has not had the best of starts to the season. A track like Suzuka could help kickstart his 2024 season.
