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The news that Sebastian Vettel would not renew his deal with Ferrari beyond 2020 seemed like a mana from heaven for Daniel Ricciardo, who seemed the most logical alternative for the four-time outgoing world champion.
Ricciardo, a proven, popular race winner with an Italian heritage, met all the requirements that Ferrari would be looking for in Charles Leclerc’s next teammate.
But that opportunity is for Carlos Sainz, with Ricciardo taking the Spaniard’s place on the McLaren team, who was once a big winner, who hasn’t won a race since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.
So why have you taken what appears to be another side step at a crucial stage in your career?
Why it makes sense for Ricciardo
When Ricciardo decided to leave Red Bull in 2018 and sign a two-year Renault contract, the decision he made for his next contract was always going to be the one deciding whether he had a chance to win a title this decade. Joining Renault allowed him to take a lucrative contract on a midfield team and wait for Lewis Hamilton or Vettel to abandon their respective Mercedes and Ferrari deals, which lasted until the same end date, and stole a superior unit.
So with Vettel coming out, what changed?
Reading the statement in the press release confirming Vettel’s refusal to sign a new agreement, two things are clear. The first is that the The coronavirus pandemic has given Vettel the opportunity to reevaluate his priorities in life and contemplate spending time at home with his young family. With that new mindset and entering into negotiations with a team clearly building around Leclerc, somewhat evidenced by the Monaco native’s new five-year contract, staying beyond 2020 was probably not worth it.
Leclerc’s role in the team cannot be underestimated. Ricciardo has experienced this dynamic before: The way he saw Red Bull move around Max Verstappen in the early months of 2018 was one of the factors he considered before leaving, several sources close to Australia told ESPN.
Although apparently the Vettel news may have been his big moment, Ricciardo has often ignored the common consensus: his patchwork helmet from the 2019 race carried the message “Stop being them.” In truth, Ferrari seemed less likely this time around than it might have been in 2016, or even a spell in early 2018. There was always fear that his role at Ferrari was more akin to that of Australian Mark Webber at Red Bull. . alongside Vettel in the early 2010s.
Like Hamilton, Ricciardo does not demand preferential treatment when signing his contracts, but not having equality is a decisive factor. At McLaren, not only will you get that, but you can also be the one to build the team.
Ricciardo was not convinced that McLaren was on the right track in 2018, opting to sign with Renault, but McLaren showed last season that he is on the right track. The new team boss Andreas Seidl has brought the team to life and seems to be the perfect person to bring it to the front. You can expect to use Mercedes engines starting in 2021 and a major rule change in 2022. McLaren is also committed to Building a new state-of-the-art wind tunnel, and the imminent introduction of a $ 145 million budget cap is expected to help bring the top 10 F1 teams closer together in terms of absolute competitiveness.
By contrast, Ricciardo was quickly frustrated with Renault in 2019, with a string of reliability issues throughout the year and with no signs of much improvement. The delay in the 2020 season also further clouded things, as Renault’s long-term commitment to F1 seems dubious even before the world changed so dramatically this year.
While McLaren is still breaking out of its routine, it’s also worth remembering that Ferrari has not won a championship since the constructors in 2008 and it seems unlikely that it will in the next two years against Mercedes, with development rules effectively frozen until regulations change. Ferrari’s announcement of Sainz’s signing included recognition that he faces a long journey back to a championship.
Why it makes sense for McLaren
This is easier to understand. Ricciardo is a great statement of intent for a McLaren team that is on an upward trajectory but still a long way from its former glories. Clearly, the laid back Aussie will be a dream for the marketing department as he has been a focal point of the F1 Netflix series “Drive to Survive.” It also gives them the caliber of a lost pilot when Fernando Alonso retired in 2018.
Lando Norris, who will partner with Ricciardo in 2021, is an excellent long-term prospect for McLaren; English is prodigiously talented and arguably the biggest name in racing sports, an industry that seems to be growing in marketing and visibility every day during the current pandemic. However, the 20-year-old is still a raw young talent without a podium or career victory. His impressive rookie season was measured well at times against Sainz, but the question of how good that benchmark really was until the Spaniard has competed against a race winner in race winning machinery.
Sainz and Norris together formed a popular lineup within the team, but that doubt, however small, was there. Ricciardo removed any doubt about his willingness to win a championship during his five years with Red Bull. He has won races and has established his reputation as the best overtaker on the F1 grid.
His late braking approach, known as “just lick the stamp and send it on,” was the basis of several of his most memorable victories, including Canada and Hungary in 2014 and his sensational late fight on the field to win the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix. That trait suits McLaren perfectly, given where it is right now.
Ricciardo’s laid-back demeanor often hides his determination to become Australia’s first world champion since Alan Jones in 1980. His ability to run makes him the perfect man to lead the next stage of McLaren’s revival and he should give that team up. all the more reason to be optimistic about adding some new championship laurels to the company’s Woking headquarters this decade.
