How Ricciardo’s F1 experience played a part in his downfall

Racing Bulls racing director Alan Permane believes Daniel Ricciardo utilizing his Method 1 expertise to ‘overthink issues’ performed a component in his downfall final season.

Ricciardo returned to the crew [then known as AlphaTauri] halfway by means of the 2023 marketing campaign as a alternative for Nyck de Vries, although a damaged metacarpal sustained in observe for the Dutch Grand Prix saved him out for 5 races.

The Australian retained his seat with the newly named RB crew alongside Yuki Tsunoda for final season with the objective of changing into Sergio Perez’s successor at Pink Bull, returning to the seat he as soon as held alongside Max Verstappen which he abandoned on the finish of 2018.

However after a spate of poor performances – break up solely by a surprising fourth within the Miami Grand Prix dash race – Ricciardo was ultimately shuffled out for Liam Lawson, who has since develop into Verstappen’s Pink Bull team-mate.

Requested if he knew why Ricciardo struggled with the VCARB-01 automotive, Permane instructed Autosport: “Truthfully no.

“I don’t know and he doesn’t both. We sat down and talked, tried to determine it out. I used to be actually anxious that he was overthinking issues – he was involved concerning the tyres, that they couldn’t deal with the velocity he can be asking of them.  

Alan Permane, Racing Director RB F1 Group

Picture by: Pink Bull Content material Pool

“It felt like he was utilizing his big expertise to second-guess issues that doubtlessly weren’t right, as a result of Yuki wasn’t and he was driving as fast as he might and it was working.  

“That was a troublesome time after which after all we went to Miami and Daniel put it fourth on the grid [for the sprint race]. And also you assume, ‘Ah, it’s all clicked.’ That was the Daniel I knew at Renault.  

“You try this within the dash on Saturday morning, then you definitely go for [grand prix] qualifying within the afternoon and he’s 18th. It was a little bit of a thriller, truthfully.”

Ricciardo had been on the sidelines earlier than rejoining the Faenza-based outfit having been let go by McLaren on the finish of 2022, the primary 12 months of the present regulatory period.

Lewis Hamilton has additionally discovered it troublesome to proceed his driving type with the ground-effect vehicles, particularly in qualifying, whereas up-and-coming drivers have seemingly thrived. Whether or not it’s a case of the championship’s veterans failing to return to grips with the automotive’s specifics, Permane replied: “I don’t know, is the sincere reply. I actually don’t assume so.  

“Take a look at Fernando [Alonso] in Spa final 12 months. He was immense, unimaginable. I do know it’s a handy factor to say with individuals like [Franco] Colapinto coming in, [Oliver] Bearman… and positively Franco appeared wonderful in his first few races.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Group, and Franco Colapinto, Williams Racing

Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photos

“But it surely’s very troublesome – one of many issues we mentioned on the time was that it’s nice when a driver is available in and does that, however doing it each week, that’s the laborious factor.  

“When you take a look at his [Colapinto’s] final couple of weekends, he hasn’t fairly been so… in Mexico he was excellent though he didn’t qualify so nicely, then Brazil after all wasn’t notably good, Las Vegas not good both.  

“I feel to maintain that stage week in, week out, for these younger guys, that’s the place it will get powerful. There’s an enormous quantity they must do away from the monitor as nicely, so that they’re not simply left to take a seat with engineers and give attention to that.

“There’s all kinds of PR stuff which comes with Method 1 now, and I’m fairly positive these younger guys aren’t used to, so there’s distractions in every single place. However there’s little doubt that they’re spectacular, that’s for positive.”

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