Young Guns Challenge Ricciardo as He Did to Vettel

Ricciardo now confronts young rivals, mirroring his own rise against Vettel in 2014, with fresh talent proving fearless.

Christian Horner is convinced that Daniel Ricciardo is now facing the same challenge from young drivers benefiting from their fresh, unburdened approach, just as the Australian did in 2014 against Sebastian Vettel during his first year with the Austrian team. The RB F1 driver has been sidelined and will be replaced by Liam Lawson starting in Austin.

“When you arrive in Formula 1, you receive an overwhelming amount of information because everyone is analyzing how hard you brake, where you brake, when you brake, your style, your positioning, the energy you put into the tire,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast.

“So you get all these signals. What you tend to find with a young guy, and Daniel was exactly the same when he jumped into our car alongside Sebastian Vettel, is that they seem to have the ability to adapt very quickly.”

“Maybe because they don’t have preconceived ideas of how a car should be, they just adapt and drive the thing fast, which is exactly what Daniel did in 2014.”

“We had obviously moved from V8s to V6s, and the car that year had a different characteristic. We had switched from a V8 to a V6, and the car had different characteristics that year.”

“He quickly gained the upper hand on Sebastian that year, in 2014, and was able to handle the situation much better than Seb. He went on to win three races that year, at Spa, in Hungary, and, of course, his first race victory in Montreal.”

“I think it’s perhaps because as they progress in their career, they are less willing to drive bad cars or cars with flaws, as they’re always comparing them to some of the best cars they’ve driven.”

“It’s hard to say, but the young guys come in, they’re hungry, and they push to the limit, which is what we’re seeing with all these juniors coming through right now. They’re well-prepared, they race well, they understand how to manage the tires, etc. Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto have done an excellent job.”

The Briton also finds it amusing that Ricciardo had a better weekend after being criticized by Jacques Villeneuve: “It was actually dear Jacques Villeneuve who got under his skin by giving him a hard time. And it really fired him up.”

“The way he drove that weekend, he took the car by the scruff of the neck and delivered a very strong performance. So I told Jacques to call him before every Grand Prix for the rest of the year because whatever he said worked.”

“It actually pushed Daniel to drive the car flat out that weekend and deliver a fantastic performance. It pushed him to achieve a level he hadn’t shown since Hungary, the year before his injury. So, it felt like when he was pushed, the performance was there, but it would then drop off.”