Ricciardo’s recent F1 struggles baffled his teams, leaving Racing Bulls unable to offer the support he truly needed.
Daniel Ricciardo’s struggles in F1 haven’t necessarily marked the end of his career. That’s the view of his former CEO, Peter Bayer, now leading Racing Bulls. According to Bayer, the Australian might still have something to offer.
“Yes, of course,” Bayer told Planet F1. “I think all these guys have something to offer. I don’t know if he wants to. I don’t think he’s considering a return, at least not for now.”
Bayer recalls a conversation where he realized Ricciardo was struggling with the current ground-effect cars: “I think back to a conversation I had with Franz [Tost] last year after Abu Dhabi [2023].”
“At Abu Dhabi, we brought, for the first time, a new-generation floor, which was really like pushing these ground-effect cars to the extreme, and we had the same floor on both cars.”
“Yuki loved it. Daniel struggled to get comfortable with it. Franz then said, ‘I’m curious to see if Daniel can overcome this, if this new type of car will suit him.’”
“Looking back now, I think he probably had difficulties with this generation of cars. It’s a different way of driving. I believe that, while drivers can always adapt, this year was so tight — sometimes we saw 20 cars within a second of each other.”
Bayer also recalls some encouraging performances from Ricciardo during his final year, but they were never followed by consistent progress.
“Adaptation is one thing, mastery is another. We saw that Canada was an extraordinary performance. In Miami, he delivered an incredible performance in the Sprint race. He did a remarkable job. And then, three hours later, in qualifying, he was nowhere.”
“I think he never had that breakthrough moment where he said, ‘I get it, this is what I need to do. This is the setup that works for me.’ They tried a ton of things because, ultimately, it’s up to the team to give the driver the car he needs, but yes, they struggled.”
Alan Permane, Racing Bulls’ Sporting Director, who previously worked with Ricciardo at Renault, admits he didn’t see the same driver: “The Daniel I knew when we were together at Renault had everything come so easily to him.”
“He came in, quickly got up to speed, was fast in qualifying, fast in races, and did everything, as always, with a smile, managing to pick up a few podiums with Renault along the way.”
“It was certainly tough for him here [at Racing Bulls], and it’s strange because he had exceptional weekends, like Miami, where he qualified fourth for the Sprint and, I think, finished fourth in it. We thought everything was fine, and then in the afternoon, he qualified 18th for the main race.”
Permane acknowledges he doesn’t understand the struggles his former driver faced with current F1 cars: “I don’t know what it is, and if I did, I’m sure we would have worked together to fix it, but he doesn’t know what it is either.”
“There was an inconsistency, or a difficulty with the tires, or something else—I don’t know. But the fact that Yuki was able to take the same car and deliver reasonably consistent performances, I know it was very frustrating for Daniel.”
It wasn’t for lack of effort to help him: “We spent a lot of time analyzing the data, and certainly with his race engineers, he managed it in an incredibly professional way, constantly evaluating himself.”
“We consistently ensured, of course, that the car was performing as it should, but Daniel spent time with his engineers looking at how he could improve and what he could do better. I know he was as frustrated as anyone else about not being able to deliver on his potential.”
Was it an issue with the developments of the VCARB 01? Did he have the same car as Tsunoda?
“I don’t think the design or the failure of some of our aerodynamic upgrades affected Daniel. And yes, both cars had the same equipment throughout the season, so I don’t think that played a role, and I don’t believe the car became less suited to one driver.”
“I don’t really understand the reasons behind Daniel’s lack of performance because there was clearly a lack of performance. It was a car that was capable, occasionally—not in every race but often enough—of reaching Q3, yet Daniel was being eliminated in Q1, and that was a huge source of frustration for him.”
“We did everything we could to support and help him, and we all tried to figure out what was happening. Drivers come and go because people believe either their time is up or there’s someone better on the market, but he certainly had the same equipment.”
- Discover More>Brown Credits FIA for F1 Engine Parity Breakthrough
- Follow us on >Facebook and >Twitter for F1 updates
Daniel Ricciardo’s Struggles in F1 Left Racing Bulls Unable to Help Daniel Ricciardo’s Struggles in F1 Left Racing Bulls Unable to Help Daniel Ricciardo’s Struggles in F1 Left Racing Bulls Unable to Help
