The making and breaking of Daniel Ricciardo’s Formulation 1 profession exhibits why workforce mate contests are so necessary in Formulation 1.
Few anticipated Purple Bull’s new hiring in 2014 to place one over Sebastian Vettel, who had simply gained his fourth consecutive world championship. However Ricciardo did precisely that.
Given his current struggles, it’s straightforward to neglect why Ricciardo was so highly-rated by many in these early years. However think about the affect a driver would make if Max Verstappen wins one other championship this yr – after which will get crushed by his workforce mate in 2025.
Verstappen was the primary driver who requested critical questions of Ricciardo as a workforce mate. Throughout their third yr alongside one another, Ricciardo took the fateful determination to show his again on Purple Bull.
We now know he was leaving what was a championship-winning automobile. However how a lot of Purple Bull’s subsequent glory he would have claimed is uncertain, such has been Verstappen’s grip on the workforce since then.
From there, Ricciardo spent two seasons at Renault the place he held the higher hand over two completely different workforce mates. However at McLaren he discovered himself up towards one other difficult workforce mate: Lando Norris. This time there was no query of Ricciardo leaping ship early. McLaren lower his three-year contract quick by a season, and Ricciardo’s F1 profession gave the impression to be over.
Purple Bull handed him a lifeline final yr, inserting him at their junior workforce AlphaTauri (now RB). Nonetheless his comeback was virtually instantly derailed by a crash which left him with a wrist harm.
Again within the automobile full-time on the finish of the yr, Ricciardo measured up poorly towards his newest workforce mate Yuki Tsunoda. Purple Bull hoped he would show himself worthy of a return to the highest workforce, however he’s fallen far quick, and his time in F1 now appears to be at an finish.
2011: HRT
Staff mate: Vitantonio Liuzzi*
Factors have been out of the query throughout Ricciardo’s mid-season debut with the struggling HRT workforce, which folded on the finish of the next yr. Nonetheless he measured up impressively towards a driver Purple Bull knew properly: Their former racer Vitantonio Liuzzi.
*Narain Karthikeyan was additionally Ricciardo’s workforce mate for one race
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2012: Toro Rosso
Staff mate: Jean-Eric Vergne
For his first full season in F1, Purple Bull moved Ricciardo to their junior workforce, recognized on the time as Toro Rosso. He went up towards Jean-Eric Vergne, who started the yr with zero racing expertise.
2013: Toro Rosso
Staff mate: Jean-Eric Vergne
Ricciardo’s one-lap tempo proved persistently superior to his workforce mate’s, although Vergne gathered extra factors of their first season collectively.
However when Mark Webber selected to retire on the finish of the yr, Purple Bull picked his fellow Austrian to take his place on the prime workforce.
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2014: Purple Bull
Staff mate: Sebastian Vettel
The glory of ending on the rostrum on residence floor in his first race for Purple Bull was soured when Ricciardo was disqualified for a technical infringement. However higher days lay forward: When the all-conquering Mercedes faltered in Canada he gained, then did so once more in back-to-back races in Hungary and Belgium.
This left world champion workforce mate Vettel totally discomfited, and he left for Ferrari on the finish of the yr.
2015: Purple Bull
Staff mate: Daniil Kvyat
Ricciardo was now prime canine at a current championship-winning workforce, however their Renault energy models weren’t as much as the job. That was clear in 2015 when Ricciardo and new workforce mate Daniil Kvyat didn’t win a single race.
Worryingly for Ricciardo, Kvyat additionally narrowly out-scored him. It was an in depth combat, nonetheless, and Ricciardo was barely worse off by way of unreliability. Kvyat’s propensity to get entangled in incidents didn’t assist his trigger both, and 4 races into the next season he was demoted again to Toro Rosso.
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2016: Purple Bull
Staff mate: Max Verstappen*
Kvyat’s loss was Verstappen’s achieve. Purple Bull’s newest hiring proved he was a power to be reckoned with from the surface, snatching victory on his debut after the warring Mercedes drivers collided and Ricciardo ended up on a less-than-ideal technique.
Ricciardo had the higher hand by way of outcomes over their 17 races collectively, nevertheless it wouldn’t keep that method.
*Daniil Kvyat was additionally Ricciardo’s workforce mate for 4 races
2017: Purple Bull
Staff mate: Max Verstappen
Purple Bull continued to battle with their underpowered and unreliable Renault motors in 2017, a lot in order that their two drivers solely took the chequered flag collectively seven occasions in 20 races.
Ricciardo took probably the most benefit of these alternatives to complete, out-scoring Verstappen and claiming a terrific win in Azerbaijan regardless of falling to seventeenth at one stage. However Verstappen’s core tempo benefit was turning into clear.
2018: Purple Bull
Staff mate: Max Verstappen
With two wins within the first six races, Ricciardo appeared to have an out of doors probability of combating for the championship early in 2018. However he failed to attain at spherical 4 in Azerbaijan after a contentious collision with Verstappen which put each drivers out and set Ricciardo’s thoughts to shifting on.
He finally determined to affix Renault, however by the point he walked out of Purple Bull there was now not any doubt who the workforce’s ‘alpha driver’ was.
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2019: Renault
Staff mate: Nico Hulkenberg
May Ricciardo discover championship success given a fast sufficient automobile? There appeared little trigger to doubt it as he rapidly made himself at residence with Renault. He eclipsed Nico Hulkenberg so totally Renault changed his workforce mate for the next yr.
2020: Renault
Staff mate: Esteban Ocon
To the disgust of Renault workforce principal Cyril Abiteboul, Ricciardo determined to maneuver on from the workforce earlier than the pandemic-delayed 2020 season even started. A possibility to affix McLaren offered itself, and he grabbed it, although he later mentioned it had been a fair more durable determination than leaving Purple Bull had been.
Ricciardo continued to show himself a formidable power, beating new workforce mate Esteban Ocon much more successfully than he had Ricciardo. But it surely proved the ultimate time Ricciardo had the higher hand over a full season.
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2021: McLaren
Staff mate: Lando Norris
Ricciardo’s victory within the 2021 Italian Grand Prix was a dream outcome, even a partial vindication of his determination to depart Purple Bull. But it surely was taken within the tooth of a season-long beating by Norris, a driver 11 years his junior.
Even with the factors bump from that victory, taken on a day when McLaren instructed Norris to comply with his workforce mate residence, Ricciardo was out-scored over the course of the season.
2022: McLaren
Staff mate: Lando Norris
Shortly earlier than the 2022 season started, McLaren renewed Norris’ contract for the second time in 9 months. It was a telling signal of how the stability of energy had shifted on the workforce.
If Ricciardo hoped he would get alongside higher in his second McLaren chassis, constructed to the drastically overhauled technical laws for 2022, he was badly dissatisfied. Norris routed him much more emphatically than the yr earlier than, and at mid-season McLaren introduced they’d lower his contract quick by a yr.
2023: AlphaTauri
Staff mate: Yuki Tsunoda
Purple Bull’s prodigal son returned on the finish of 2022. The workforce provided their driver a possible route again to a prime workforce, first as a reserve driver for Purple Bull, then as a substitute for the struggling Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.
To start with the indicators have been promising. Ricciardo’s first weekend again in Hungary went properly, however then he was pressured out for 5 races when he broke a wrist at Zandvoort.
An outstanding second-row qualifying spot in Mexico after his return, adopted by a seventh-place end, appeared to point Purple Bull had been smart to maintain the religion in him. Tsunoda picked up extra factors, however may Ricciardo do higher with a bit extra familiarity with the automobile?
2024: RB
Staff mate: Yuki Tsunoda
The reply, we now know, was no. Once more there have been occasional glimpses of the previous Ricciardo. He certified and raced beautifully properly within the dash occasion at Miami.
However nothing else gave Purple Bull trigger to maintain the religion. Motorsport marketing consultant Helmut Marko let it’s recognized they might determine on their future driver preparations in September, and throughout the Singapore Grand Prix weekend it turned an open secret that this was his final race.
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