Daniel Riccardo: Driver of his generation?

[hairyben]

Joffery666 said:

With all this talk about the Mercedes team, Let's not forget what Daniel, a newcomer to the team, is doing to the apparent 4 times wc.

^From the hungarian GP thread, soon to be lost to a sea of generic argument of hamilton hangups, but it reflected what I've been thinking so I thought this deserved it's own space.

Last year he looked a good but perhaps journeyman driver, to the point many considered red bull were playing it safe so as not to upset the star child vettel. But he turned out to be a bloody smiling assassin, it seems he can do no wrong, and theres no talent he does not have...

• Toe to toe with the greatest duellers hamilton/alonso etc and has held his own every time.
• Has an tactical mind/situational awareness I can only recall seeing in alonso and schu. He knows early on how things might pan out and isn't afraid to tell the team what strategy might work ("If theres some action going down I want to be a part of it")
• Seems amazingly well grounded, come rain or sine, keeps smiling and seems to lack the emotional baggage of many (most) drivers
• Takes no st off anyone but smiles and acts nice enough to get away with it
• His wins & results have come about by virtue of allways being there or thereabouts, always lurking, getting more out the car than you might expect

He's kinda crept in and matured rather than showing the superstar promise from the outset but he seems pretty much peerless right now. Any team principle not trying to chat him up into a multi year deal needs their head looking at. I wonder what the odds are for him to be the next triple world champ right now?

[hairyben]

The Vambo said:

As per title? No, far too early. See S Vettel.

Clearly a very good driver and a top prospect though.

Vettel, for all his silverware, has never shown the range of skill or tools in the toolbox that ricciardo has already demonstrated though.

[hairyben]

pingu393 said:

I think that today was the day everybody woke up to his talents.

I really liked the way that he just sat back and waited for those in front to pit, or for them to wear out their tyres. Why risk an unneccessary pass? Then, when it became obvious that they weren't going to pit, he made the moves and passed two ex-World Champions like they were rookies.

The mark of the smiling assassin is to bide your time and strike when the opponent is weak.

I don't think that's the last time we will hear "Australia Fair".

Yeah I've been pondering the last few races now, he's been a bit of a slow burner but you've encapsulated what I was trying to blubber out very well, he seems to have the speed of the hungry youth he is with the racecraft of the experienced and the foresight of the wise.

[hairyben]

The Vambo said:

hairyben said:

Vettel, for all his silverware, has never shown the range of skill or tools in the toolbox that ricciardo has already demonstrated though.

That is only true if you only just started watching F1 this season. Otherwise it is just revisionist nonsense.

Care to counter with something tangible, such as where you feel ricciardo is weak then?

[hairyben]

Sorry I thought it kinda went without saying that he needs to be in the middle to twilight of his career and have a few WDC's under his belt before such an accolade can be unquestioningly attributed to him, therefore a bit of speculation about who he's shaping up to be is an inevitability.

Few of you seem to be taking this as an attack on vettel which it really isn't. It's about Ricciardo. And if you stop and think about it for a moment, bigging up ricciardo actually exonerates vettels recent form, so calm down.

Not evan a big fanboi of his- with my fan hat on I'd like to see hamilton do well- win a couple more WDCs at least, but with my team manager hat on I'd be going after ricci first of all.