Our hero Max Verstappen believes that Daniel Ricciardo should have stayed at Red Bull Racing.
As will be known by now, Daniel Ricciardo will return to work for Red Bull Racing next year. That is, the man from Perth will be reserve driver with the championship team. That is, of course, quite different from the period from 2014 to 2018, when the honey badger was the permanent pilot – as our southern neighbors say so beautifully – of the racing stable.
Veteran Vettel
In his stint with Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo basically went from the youngster beating the veteran in the space of five years to the veteran being beaten by the new youngster. In 2014, the honey badger made a name for itself by surprising everyone and beating Vettel. Now that sounds a bit less spectacular than it actually was back then.
Vettel had just become world champion four times with Red Bull. Ricciardo, on the other hand, had only just been favored over Jean-Eric Vergne to fill the outgoing Webber’s seat. No one expected the Australian to give the German a hard time, let alone really beat Seb. Yet exactly that happened.
New young dog
Ricciardo won the qualifying game (12-7), scored more points and won three races, while Vettel remained without a win that year. The latter was somewhat distorted. Vettel was actually faster in Canada, but due to a wrong strategy he finished third and Ricciardo took his first victory.
However, Vettel left for Ferrari in 2015. And after a resounding debut season for RIC, he had a tough time against Daniil Kvyat in 2015. Although it also had a lot to do with bad luck, the Russian just scored more points than the Ozzie below the line. And that with only a year of Toro Rosso behind him. You would say that the man who beats the man who just beat the four-time champion would have a golden F1 future. However, in reality he was dumped for Verstappen after four races in 2016. Well, we know how it all ended. Max immediately won in Spain, then also won the heart of Kelly, et cetera.
Slow turnaround
Nevertheless, despite Max’s spectacular debut at Red Bull, Ricciardo was initially the better of the two. As time went on, that slowly started to change. In 2017, Max already won the qualifying match. ‘On experience’, however, RIC achieved (considerably) more podiums (10 against 4) and more points (200 against 168).
In the summer of 2018, we then wrote that it seemed that Verstappen was becoming the parent. At that time, the two were still almost equal in points (RIC 96, VER 93). Finally we were right for once, because it turned out to be true in the end. Verstappen finished the year with 249 points, while Ricciardo collected 170.
Ricciardo to Renault
It was clear: the still very young Max had now become the new big man within Red Bull Racing. Ricciardo actually makes a choice that seems logical at the time. Just as Vettel had done before him towards Ferrari, he made the run ahead towards works team Renault. At least there he could become the spearhead of the attack on the other teams.
And yes, we are now so used to Renault/Alpine actually finishing fourth or fifth in the World Cup every year, that we almost see it as a law. But certainly at that time, the French were considered the sleeping giants who could wake up at any moment to relive the glory days of yesteryear.
Now test driver and banner
Of course we now know that the latter did not happen. Nevertheless, Ricciardo managed to beat well-regarded teammates such as Hulkenberg and Ocon more often than not during his time at Renault. It was mainly the switch to McLaren that killed the honey badger. The Australian never became friends with the understeer orange car. Teammate Norris handled it much better. A special victory in Monza was not enough to disguise two extremely disappointing years. And now… test driver and signboard at Red Bull.
Would it have been better otherwise?
Would it all have been better if Ricciardo had ‘just’ stayed with Red Bull after 2018? We will, of course, never know for sure. Maybe RIC would have been written off four years earlier, if you look at how Albon, Gasly and to some extent Perez fared. However, Verstappen thinks at quality publication Formule 1.nl that his mattie had fared better:
It would have been better for Daniel if he had stayed longer with Red Bull at the time. I’ve talked to him about it. It’s also about feeling good somewhere. At some point that was no longer the case. Then you have to look at alternatives and make the trade-off between sporting success and feeling good somewhere. However, I do know that everyone at Red Bull had his best interests at heart. Instead of leaving, he could have talked to the team about it. But it turned out the way it turned out.
Max Verstappen, likes the arrival of his old teammate
Whose deed. Is Max Emilian right? Let us know in the comments!
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