Daniel Ricciardo

[thegreenhell]

cgt2 said:

Dermot O'Logical said:

but he still managed to win at Monza last year.

When Norris was told not to race him and obey team orders..

To be fair to Daniel, that was his race on merit that weekend. He qualified 0.006 behind Norris, but then beat him in the sprint race, and took the lead at the start of the main race. Norris only got close enough to think about challenging at the end because of the safety car, which wiped out the lead Daniel had built up at that point.

[cgt2]

thegreenhell said:

To be fair to Daniel, that was his race on merit that weekend. He qualified 0.006 behind Norris, but then beat him in the sprint race, and took the lead at the start of the main race. Norris only got close enough to think about challenging at the end because of the safety car, which wiped out the lead Daniel had built up at that point.

Agreed but Norris was clearly very upset after the race about not being allowed to challenge and based on the past two seasons when he has passed Ricciardo multiple times it's fully possible he could have taken him after the SC.

[PhillipM]

Pflanzgarten said:

Ah I wasn’t aware of that.

This chunk

[thegreenhell]

PhillipM said:

Pflanzgarten said:

Ah I wasn’t aware of that.

This chunk

Which the team said was picked up late in the race and it didn't affect his performance.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mystery-debris-...

[timmybob]

Looks like McLaren have given him the boot.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-daniel-ricci...
Given how confident Piastri was turning down Alpine, it's not unexpected but handled very poorly.

[FourWheelDrift]

How is it handled poorly, they have told him, they didn't text him, they didn't announce it without telling him or do it all behind his back and let Pisatri make the announcement.

[timmybob]

Piastri's confident tweet earlier this week suggests he was already aware of the change. And whilst it's possible that DR had already been told as well, it's surprising there's no official announcement.

[parabolica]

timmybob said:

…handled very poorly.

In fairness to McLaren they were dealt a stty hand; to Oscar’s credit he didn’t say “I’m driving for McLaren next year” in his press release; everyone just connected the dots and started talking about Danny Ric; looks like the jungle drums are likely to be right.

What is stty is DR was obviously given some kind of affirmation a few weeks back before he posted that message on his socials about being in contract with McLaren and that he was staying put. But that’s F1 sometimes.

[mw88]

timmybob said:

Looks like McLaren have given him the boot.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclaren-daniel-ricci...
Given how confident Piastri was turning down Alpine, it's not unexpected but handled very poorly.

It's a shame if he's been dropped like that after all the "I'm committed, I've got a contract and I'll be driving for McLaren next year" stuff but the performance hasn't been there.

I'm guessing McLaren hasn't seen enough from him behind the scenes either to give them confidence he can turn it around.

Back to Renault/Alpine seems the only option? Joe Saward thinks Schumacher is at risk of losing his seat but I don't see Ricciardo at Haas for some reason.

[Tyre Smoke]

Perhaps he is staying put? He's contracted. He might be driving for them, but he's still got a contract.

[Dingu]

If you are going to be paid that much money to be routinely outperformed by your team mate then the result is pretty inevitable to be honest.
If he was bringing big money in the result would likely be different.

[Gtom]

I have seen a figure of $15m for his salary/pay off for next season and there is four seats on the table, Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams.

Could the deal be it’s $15m to sit at home and watch the races on the TV, $5m (or maybe even $0) and you can go to Alpine or $10m pay off and you can drive for one of the other three and we give that team $5m towards your salary.

If McLaren have any sense they won’t want to pay him $15m to end up at Alpine in a 2023 car better than their own and beating them.

[TheDeuce]

I'm still thinking it's not unlikely DR will end up somewhere with a drive next season - he carries a lot of value beyond his driving skills (or mysterious lack-of these days).

But if he ends up back at Alpine, that would be hilarious.

[cgt2]

Why would Alpine be that keen to have him based on the evidence of the past 18 months? McLaren clearly don't think he can deliver so why would Alpine think any different unless he's very cheap?

[TheDeuce]

cgt2 said:

Why would Alpine be that keen to have him based on the evidence of the past 18 months? McLaren clearly don't think he can deliver so why would Alpine think any different unless he's very cheap?

I forgot to add that part of the reason I believe he could find a seat is because he's relatively young and might prefer to keep an F1 drive at a reduced pay as opposed to shuffle off.

In fact, that's the entire basis of my theory. If he wants to carry on in F1 then he probably can still make himself appealing enough to a team to do so. The price tag would definitely be part of that equation.

DR at $15m doesn't make sense. DR at $5m probably does and could easily keep $5m++ worth of sponsors pretty happy.

[Gtom]

cgt2 said:

Why would Alpine be that keen to have him based on the evidence of the past 18 months? McLaren clearly don't think he can deliver so why would Alpine think any different unless he's very cheap?

Because he is a proven race winner, he has beaten a reigning world champion in equal machinery, he was an honest match to
a future world champion in equal machinery. He is likeable and marketable. Yes he has lost his way but that ‘could’ change, Alpine/Renault have lost their way but they are hoping that will change.

What other decent options (as in experienced, race winning drivers) have Alpine got?

[cgt2]

Gtom said:

Because he is a proven race winner, he has beaten a reigning world champion in equal machinery, he was an honest match to
a future world champion in equal machinery. He is likeable and marketable. Yes he has lost his way but that ‘could’ change, Alpine/Renault have lost their way but they are hoping that will change.

What other decent options (as in experienced, race winning drivers) have Alpine got?

All past tense. Time waits for no one, I would rather see a young hotshot who would probably cost less and is far less of a risk. If they take Ricciardo and he again fails to perform they are stuck.

[HustleRussell]

January 2021 f1.com said:

In 2020 Ricciardo comfortably outperformed Ocon at Renault, with the qualifying head-to-head 15-2 in the Australian’s favour, while he scored 119 points to Ocon’s 62, and finished seven places ahead of him in the drivers’ championship.

[TheDeuce]

cgt2 said:

Gtom said:

Because he is a proven race winner, he has beaten a reigning world champion in equal machinery, he was an honest match to
a future world champion in equal machinery. He is likeable and marketable. Yes he has lost his way but that ‘could’ change, Alpine/Renault have lost their way but they are hoping that will change.

What other decent options (as in experienced, race winning drivers) have Alpine got?

All past tense. Time waits for no one, I would rather see a young hotshot who would probably cost less and is far less of a risk. If they take Ricciardo and he again fails to perform they are stuck.

As to my above post, likeable and marketable are not past tense. It's just the value proposition is now less than before because the performance has diminished.

Traditionally we would say that performance is everything in F1. But these days it's possible to run a team at a profit endlessly despite mediocre performance - provided that team can continue to appeal to sponsors sufficiently to reach a fairly modest cost cap. Let's be honest, any team that does give him a seat will be guaranteed plenty of on screen time regardless of his performance - he's become a big interest in the sport because he is struggling and any mistakes or poor drives he delivers are now a talking point. It's all a bit fked up granted but this very thread shows he is of interest right now - so long as that's the case, the car he drives will appear more times during a live GP broadcast than some others where there is no drama good/bad whatsoever.

I'm not predicting he will get a seat. I'm just pointing out that he still has a certain appeal and with the right deal, he probably can get a seat.

[FourWheelDrift]

Gtom said:

cgt2 said:

Why would Alpine be that keen to have him based on the evidence of the past 18 months? McLaren clearly don't think he can deliver so why would Alpine think any different unless he's very cheap?

Because he is a proven race winner, he has beaten a reigning world champion in equal machinery, he was an honest match to
a future world champion in equal machinery. He is likeable and marketable. Yes he has lost his way but that ‘could’ change, Alpine/Renault have lost their way but they are hoping that will change.

He was also beaten in 2015 by his team mate Daniel Kyvat and he's where now?

Only current form really matters.

2022
Norris 76 points
Ricciardo 19 points (only 3 more than Vettel who missed the first 2 races of the year and driving the 2nd worst car and who's retiring this year).