Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer has pinpointed the crucial factor that triggered Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 downfall during his second stint in the sport.
Ricciardo, a driver with eight Grand Prix wins and at times world-beating talent, had a difficult final few years in F1.
A disastrous two-year stint at McLaren prompted a temporary hiatus in 2023 until Racing Bulls [under the guise of AlphaTauri] handed the Australian a route back to F1 mid-season.
Ricciardo earned another crack of the whip in 2024, but he couldn’t recapture his best form and after failing to beat team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, was replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore Grand Prix.
Bayer revealed to PlanetF1 that a conversation with former Team Principal Franz Tost at the end of 2023 uncovered the root of Ricciardo’s troubles.
“I’m just actually thinking back to a conversation I had with Franz last year after Abu Dhabi [2023],” Bayer said.
“Abu Dhabi, we brought, for the first time [in 2023], a new generation floor, which was really like going into the extreme of these ground-effect cars and we had the same floor on both cars.
“Yuki loved it. Daniel was struggling with it.
“Franz then actually said, ‘I’m curious to see whether Daniel can recover with this, whether this new type of car will suit him’.”
Upon reflection, Bayer believes that Ricciardo, who was at his glittering best in the previous high-rake era of F1, struggled in the ground effect ruleset introduced in 2022.
“I think now, in hindsight, probably he was struggling with this generation of cars,” Bayer said.
“They are just a different way of driving. I think, whilst the driver can always adapt, this year was so close – sometimes we’ve seen 20 cars within a second.
“Adapting is one thing, mastering it is another thing.”
Alan Permane saw a different Ricciardo at Racing Bulls
Alan Permane joined Racing Bulls ahead of the 2024 campaign as Racing Director, after a long association with the Enstone-based Alpine squad.
Permane worked with Ricciardo during Alpine’s Renault days in 2019 and 2020, where he saw a very different beast.
At Renault, Ricciardo was still operating at his best, dragging the midfield outfit to podium finishes.
“The Daniel I knew when we were at Renault together, it all just came very easily for him,” said Pemrane.
“He came in and was very quickly up to speed. He was fast in qualifying, fast in the race, and did everything, as always, with a smile on his face, and managed to achieve a couple of podiums along the way with Renault.”
Ricciardo at Racing Bulls was inconsistent
Both Bayer and Permane spoke to the rollercoaster nature of Ricciardo’s final F1 campaign.
Underwhelming results were interrupted by sudden positive results, with no rhyme or reason to the Australian’s form.
“It certainly was tricky for him here, and it’s odd because he’d have outstanding weekends like Miami, where he qualified fourth for the sprint, and I think he finished fourth in the sprint,” said Permane.
“It just looked like ‘Ah, here we go’ and then, that afternoon, he qualified 18th for the main race.”
Permane spoke of how neither he nor Ricciardo truly knew what was causing his issues.
“I don’t know what it was and, if I did, I’m sure we’d have worked on it together and fixed it, and he doesn’t know what it was,” he said.
“There’s an inconsistency, or a struggling with the tyres, or whatever it is, I don’t know.
“But for Yuki to be able to take the same car and deliver reasonably consistently, I know it was very frustrating for Daniel.”
Ricciardo’s fourth-placed Sprint finish and Q1 exit at Miami typified his difficult season.
Even with a strong eighth place at the Canadian Grand Prix, Bayer said Ricciardo failed to find the key to unlock performance consistently.
“We saw Canada was an amazing performance,” said Bayer.
“Miami was an amazing performance in the [Sprint] race. He did an outstanding job. And then, three hours later in qualifying, he was nowhere.
“I think he didn’t have that breakthrough moment, where he was like, ‘Okay, I got it. This is what I need to do. This is the setup that suits me’.
“They’d been trying a ton of things, because, ultimately, it’s down to the team to give the driver the car that he needs, but, yeah, they struggled.”
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