Two seasons after the experience with Renault, Daniel Ricciardo has embraced the 2021 World Cup by signing with McLaren, where he found Lando Norris as a new teammate. The comparison between the two drivers, analyzing the last championship, definitely smiled at the Englishman, with four podiums won and a pole position obtained in Russia. At the same time, however, the Australian made up for it with a great performance in the Italian Grand Prix, in which he brought the British team back to the victory for the first time after nine years of fasting. In Monza, immediately after crossing the finish line, the 32-year-old from Perth celebrated through a radio message to the team’s address, addressing his new team with these words: “I knew this moment was coming, so thank you for having my back. To anyone who thought I was gone, I mean I never did. I just stepped aside for a while. “
Almost four months after that success, Ricciardo wanted to clarify that statement in an interview with autosport.com, retracing even the most negative and complex moments experienced during the last season: “I realize how that message was aimed at people who thought I was lost – commented – but, mainly, it was aimed at me. There were times when I had lost some confidence, and I started wondering why I was struggling so hard. I started to question the fact that I could no longer push the car to the limit. I knew deep down that obviously it wasn’t, but when things don’t go well you start asking yourself these questions. That message was addressed to me too, to prove that you can still be part of this category. Anyone who has forgotten it, will never forget it. After the first race of the year in Bahrain – where he managed to do better than Norris all weekend – I gave an image of me that didn’t represent me, so much so that in the following tests I struggled a lot. The second half of the year, on the other hand, went well, and the victory in Monza provided me with confirmation that I needed myself. Now I’m happy with how things went, that if they weren’t perfect “. In conclusion, Ricciardo explained his state of mind at the end of the Hungarian GP, where he was involved in a tangle at the start, finishing 11th out of 13 cars that reached the finish: “I was dejected – he added – but I was partly happy to have finally finished that first half of the championship. I thought ‘f ***** o, let’s jump on a plane and don’t think about F1 for two weeks. Everyone thinks differently, but sometimes I need to pull the plug. I’m not a driver who thinks about Formula 1 when he goes to bed at night, and I was sure that summer break would be healthy for me ”.
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