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Daniel Ricciardo headed into Formula 1’s recent triple-header hoping to “fast-track my learning” and relishing the opportunity presented by three consecutive race weekends at circuits that appeared to offer a golden chance to get his head around the McLaren.
But he ended those three weeks “knackered” mentally after struggling for pace at the Red Bull Ring on top of the rigours of such an intensive schedule.
The 32-year-old has had a difficult time adapting his style to the very specific demands of the McLaren-Mercedes MCL35M this season, but after making good progress in Azerbaijan following intensive simulator work, he was upbeat about his direction.
While he had an encouraging weekend at the French Grand Prix at the start of the triple-header, lapping 0.130s off team-mate Lando Norris in qualifying and finishing a place behind him in sixth – albeit losing half-a-second per lap in the final 20 laps once behind his team-mate – things were tougher at the Red Bull Ring.
There, Norris starred while Ricciardo struggled. Although he finished seventh in the Austrian Grand Prix, and would have picked up points in the Styrian Grand Prix thanks to a good start had he not suffered a cut in power that cost him four places on lap seven, Ricciardo’s qualifying pace was poor.
On the first Red Bull Ring weekend, he lapped 0.688s off Norris’s fastest time and on the second, 0.951s – setting a similar pace in Q2 on both weekends with a gain of just a tenth for the second event.
Having been told by race engineer Tom Stallard on the slowdown lap at the French Grand Prix that “we are back in the game”, the two events in Austria showed how far Ricciardo still has to go – even though he feels that he has made significant progress.
“It’s something I’m just going to keep working at, but I definitely do feel more comfortable in the car,” said Ricciardo after qualifying last weekend.
“Especially now this is the third [weekend of the] triple header, I’ve had enough time in the car and consistently in the last few weeks to be at a level of comfort with it. Sure, there might be a couple of little mistakes here or there but if I wouldn’t look at the classification, I’d think that today was a good day.
“Everything was feeling pretty familiar, so there’s obviously still something that is missing and we’ll just have to dig a bit deeper for that.
“But in a way, weirdly enough, I feel OK, I feel alright in the car, so I’ll just keep trying to search for where that laptime is because it’s not a tenth we’re talking, we’re still talking big margins so that one will require a bit more analysis.”
Ricciardo did have more pace in him on the second Austrian weekend, albeit with no signs of anything approaching the stellar speed that earned team-mate Norris a front-row starting place. But on his final qualifying lap, he locked up at Turn 4 and ran wide, costing him time.
Ricciardo and Stallard worked hard on refining the Australian’s approach throughout the second Austrian weekend. It was clear that, as has been the case throughout the season, corner entries were the key.
Turn 4 was a case in point. During FP3, Stallard gave Ricciardo feedback after every push lap with the comparison to Norris at the downhill right-hander a recurring theme.
At one stage, he was told to “combine less” the braking and turn in phase, with regular requests for a more progressive turn in. The objective here was to shorten the corner and achieve the necessary rotation for a good exit.
After improvements through his early laps, on his fifth push lap Ricciardo slipped back into a less effective approach to the corner, leading to him trying to feed in the power with a little more lock on coming out of the corner, compromising the exit.
Turn 4 wasn’t the only problem. Regularly he was given instructions to brake later to match Norris. The comparison was stark in the first sector in qualifying, where Norris was stunningly fast through Turn 1.
Norris set the quickest first sector time, with Ricciardo giving away 0.282s. Considering the first sector comprises only one corner and takes 16 seconds, running from the start line to 170 metres before the Turn 3 hairpin, that represents a 1.750% loss.
While Norris appeared able to brake late and get the turn-in right, correcting the rear end with minimal loss of momentum mid corner, Ricciardo generally didn’t achieve the same rotation and had to be more hesitant getting on the power at the exit – carrying less speed through and out of the turn.
Ricciardo appears to be chipping away at his natural inclination to combine the braking and turn in more than most, which seems to work less well with the McLaren. This is a trait that will hurt him more at the Red Bull Ring than many other circuits, which perhaps explains the regression after Paul Ricard.
But there is at least a clear and understandable deficit, especially given Ricciardo himself gives no indication that it’s a question of not grasping what he needs to do. The problem, instead, is one of execution and implementing a driving style that is counter-intuitive.
That’s difficult because having to drive so ‘consciously’ will always slow down a driver. But if he keeps working at it, it will come. The time to become very worried will be once if he’s fully in-tune with the car and still struggling to get near Norris.
While McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl admits to being a little disappointed with Ricciardo, he rightly remains confident in a driver who has a strong body of work in F1 to prove his qualities.
“It’s disappointing for Daniel and of course it’s a little disappointing for us that it takes longer than expected,” said Seidl.
“But it’s not the first time that I experience it in my motorsport life. Sometimes it doesn’t click straight away because it’s also not that easy and straightforward – it’s complex to change teams over winter.
“I’m still very confident and absolutely sure that it will click at some point. The day will come and Daniel will fully feel at home with the car and then we will see the Daniel again that we want to see.”
With a three-year McLaren deal in his pocket and all-new cars in 2022, Ricciardo has plenty of time and opportunity to settle in and deliver his best at McLaren. And it will be a big surprise if he doesn’t. That’s why anyone suggesting he has in some way been ‘found out’ and that McLaren should consider dropping him is wide of the mark.
But it is down to him to adapt and this process is proving to be difficult, even though we must bear in mind he’s up against a driver in Norris who has had two previous years of racing to understand the specific demands of this lineage of McLarens.
The attitude is right and there is no lack of effort being put in, and to his credit Ricciardo isn’t blaming the characteristics of the car but challenging himself to adapt. That’s what the best have to do, rather than making excuses.
The key test of Ricciardo’s credentials will be once he is on top of the car. Then we will know how he stacks up compared to Norris, who is having a stunning season in his third F1 campaign.
But Ricciardo will be hoping there aren’t many more weekends like he endured in Austria, where only his strong racecraft and incisive first laps ensured he salvaged some points – and as he told Sky Sports F1 after the race, reminded him why he does it.
“Sometimes you forget – it’s not racing it’s any occupation in life, the enjoyment is the most important because with that you get fulfilment and then you’re able to do what you love to the best of your ability,” said Ricciardo.
“Today I needed that, I just needed to have fun. To be honest, the position somewhat didn’t really matter, it was just to get in some battles and fight, that was the important thing.”
