EXCLUSIVE: F1 winner hints at KEY reason for Daniel Ricciardo ‘struggle’

Daniel Ricciardo wearing headphones at the 2023 Abu Dhabi GP — Photo: © IMAGO

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EXCLUSIVE: F1 winner hints at KEY reason for Ricciardo ‘struggle’

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Wednesday 17 April 2024 09:13 Updated: 11:08

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Daniel Ricciardo’s recent dip in form has left team bosses puzzled, but could there be a specific reason for his struggles?

The eight-time race winner has failed to match the pace of his team-mates since he joined Lando Norris at McLaren, and most recently Yuki Tsunoda at VCARB.

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Despite winning a race for McLaren at Monza in 2021, Ricciardo was replaced with Oscar Piastri for the 2023 season.

Luckily he reunited with his former team, Red Bull, who helped him back into F1 when a seat became available at AlphaTauri midway through 2023.

Daniel Ricciardo re-joined F1 with AlphaTauri - now VCARB

Ricciardo’s struggles revealed

The once master of late braking manoeuvres is now a shadow of his former successes, with suggestions he could lose his current F1 seat.

In 2024 thus far, his teammate Tsunoda has managed consecutive Q3 appearances and scored points in the past two races, whilst Ricciardo has zero points.

Speaking exclusively to GPFans, former F1 winner Johnny Herbert has hinted at the reason for Daniel Ricciardo’s struggles, particularly at McLaren.

Discussing the similarities between champions Michael Schumacher and Max Verstappen, Herbert emphasised how important simulation work is to a modern F1 driver’s performance.

“I remember Michael used to do a little bit of sim work at Ferrari. And he was quite sick when he was doing that. So he really suffered doing the sim work.

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert has three race wins to his name

“When Max does it without problem whatsoever when he’s doing the Formula 1 sim. But also when he's doing his racing sims like Lando Norris as well. And it's a skill that has become a seventh sense in Formula 1,” Herbert said, speaking on behalf of InstantCasino.

“They’ve gotten better as time has gone by, but they are very, very much now an important part of a driver's feel with the car itself. Not a feel with your fingertips, but a feeling within your brain, your brain adapts to it without thinking about it.

“I think Daniel Ricciardo when he was with Lando at McLaren, for example, suffered, because Lando was the ‘sim man’. And Daniel wasn't. And I think that's where the struggle was.”