The making and breaking of Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 career shows why team mate contests are so important in Formula 1.
Few expected Red Bull’s new hiring in 2014 to put one over Sebastian Vettel, who had just won his fourth consecutive world championship. But Ricciardo did exactly that.Given his recent struggles, it’s easy to forget why Ricciardo was so highly-rated by many in those early years. But imagine the impact a driver would make if Max Verstappen wins another championship this year – and then gets beaten by his team mate in 2025.
Verstappen was the first driver who asked serious questions of Ricciardo as a team mate. During their third year alongside each other, Ricciardo took the fateful decision to turn his back on Red Bull.
We now know he was leaving what turned into a championship-winning car. But how much of Red Bull’s subsequent glory he would have claimed is doubtful, such has been Verstappen’s grip on the team since then.
From there, Ricciardo spent two seasons at Renault where he held the upper hand over two different team mates. But at McLaren he found himself up against another challenging team mate: Lando Norris. This time there was no question of Ricciardo jumping ship early. McLaren cut his three-year contract short by a season, and Ricciardo’s F1 career seemed to be over.
Red Bull handed him a lifeline last year, placing him at their junior team AlphaTauri (now RB). However his comeback was almost immediately derailed by a crash which left him with a wrist injury.
Back in the car full-time at the end of the year, Ricciardo measured up poorly against his latest team mate Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull hoped he would demonstrate himself worthy of a return to the top team, but he’s fallen far short, and his time in F1 now seems to be at an end.
2011: HRT
Team mate: Vitantonio Liuzzi*
Points were out of the question during Ricciardo’s mid-season debut with the struggling HRT team, which folded at the end of the following year. However he measured up impressively against a driver Red Bull knew well: Their former racer Vitantonio Liuzzi.
*Narain Karthikeyan was also Ricciardo’s team mate for one race
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2012: Toro Rosso
Team mate: Jean-Eric Vergne
For his first full season in F1, Red Bull moved Ricciardo to their junior team, known at the time as Toro Rosso. He went up against Jean-Eric Vergne, who began the year with zero racing experience.
2013: Toro Rosso
Team mate: Jean-Eric Vergne
Ricciardo’s one-lap pace proved consistently superior to his team mate’s, though Vergne gathered more points in their first season together.
But when Mark Webber chose to retire at the end of the year, Red Bull picked his fellow Austrian to take his place at the top team.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2014: Red Bull
Team mate: Sebastian Vettel
The glory of finishing on the podium on home ground in his first race for Red Bull was soured when Ricciardo was disqualified for a technical infringement. But better days lay ahead: When the all-conquering Mercedes faltered in Canada he won, then did so again in back-to-back races in Hungary and Belgium.
This left world champion team mate Vettel thoroughly discomfited, and he left for Ferrari at the end of the year.
2015: Red Bull
Team mate: Daniil Kvyat
Ricciardo was now top dog at a recent championship-winning team, but their Renault power units weren’t up to the job. That was clear in 2015 when Ricciardo and new team mate Daniil Kvyat failed to win a single race.
Worryingly for Ricciardo, Kvyat also narrowly out-scored him. It was a close fight, however, and Ricciardo was slightly worse off in terms of unreliability. Kvyat’s propensity to get involved in incidents didn’t help his cause either, and four races into the following season he was demoted back to Toro Rosso.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2016: Red Bull
Team mate: Max Verstappen*
Kvyat’s loss was Verstappen’s gain. Red Bull’s latest hiring proved he was a force to be reckoned with from the outside, snatching victory on his debut after the warring Mercedes drivers collided and Ricciardo ended up on a less-than-ideal strategy.
Ricciardo had the upper hand in terms of results over their 17 races together, but it wouldn’t stay that way.
*Daniil Kvyat was also Ricciardo’s team mate for four races
2017: Red Bull
Team mate: Max Verstappen
Red Bull continued to struggle with their underpowered and unreliable Renault motors in 2017, so much so that their two drivers only took the chequered flag together seven times in 20 races.
Ricciardo took the most advantage of those opportunities to finish, out-scoring Verstappen and claiming a terrific win in Azerbaijan despite falling to 17th at one stage. But Verstappen’s core pace advantage was becoming clear.
2018: Red Bull
Team mate: Max Verstappen
With two wins in the first six races, Ricciardo appeared to have an outside chance of fighting for the championship early in 2018. But he failed to score at round four in Azerbaijan after a contentious collision with Verstappen which put both drivers out and set Ricciardo’s mind to moving on.
He eventually decided to join Renault, but by the time he walked out of Red Bull there was no longer any doubt who the team’s ‘alpha driver’ was.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2019: Renault
Team mate: Nico Hulkenberg
Could Ricciardo find championship success given a quick enough car? There seemed little cause to doubt it as he quickly made himself at home with Renault. He eclipsed Nico Hulkenberg so thoroughly Renault replaced his team mate for the following year.
2020: Renault
Team mate: Esteban Ocon
To the disgust of Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul, Ricciardo decided to move on from the team before the pandemic-delayed 2020 season even began. An opportunity to join McLaren presented itself, and he grabbed it, though he later said it had been an even harder decision than leaving Red Bull had been.
Ricciardo continued to prove himself a formidable force, beating new team mate Esteban Ocon even more effectively than he had Ricciardo. But it proved the final time Ricciardo had the upper hand over a full season.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021: McLaren
Team mate: Lando Norris
Ricciardo’s victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix was a dream result, even a partial vindication of his decision to leave Red Bull. But it was taken in the teeth of a season-long beating by Norris, a driver 11 years his junior.
Even with the points bump from that victory, taken on a day when McLaren told Norris to follow his team mate home, Ricciardo was out-scored over the course of the season.
2022: McLaren
Team mate: Lando Norris
Shortly before the 2022 season began, McLaren renewed Norris’ contract for the second time in nine months. It was a telling sign of how the balance of power had shifted at the team.
If Ricciardo hoped he would get along better in his second McLaren chassis, built to the drastically overhauled technical regulations for 2022, he was badly disappointed. Norris routed him even more emphatically than the year before, and at mid-season McLaren announced they had cut his contract short by a year.
2023: AlphaTauri
Team mate: Yuki Tsunoda
To begin with the signs were promising. Ricciardo’s first weekend back in Hungary went well, but then he was forced out for five races when he broke a wrist at Zandvoort.
A superb second-row qualifying spot in Mexico after his return, followed by a seventh-place finish, seemed to indicate Red Bull had been wise to keep the faith in him. Tsunoda picked up more points, but could Ricciardo do better with a little more familiarity with the car?
2024: RB
Team mate: Yuki Tsunoda
The answer, we now know, was no. Again there were occasional glimpses of the old Ricciardo. He qualified and raced superbly well in the sprint event at Miami.
But nothing else gave Red Bull cause to keep the faith. Motorsport consultant Helmut Marko let it be known they would decide on their future driver arrangements in September, and during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend it became an open secret that this was his last race.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Formula 1
- Norris explains why he’s learned to accept McLaren’s “very weak” handling
- Eddie Jordan, 1948-2025
- Contact with team mate may have led to Bortoleto’s Australian GP crash
- FIA extends DRS zone on Shanghai’s longest straight to make passing easier
- McLaren would have been “stupid” not to use hold position order – Norris
Napier Railton (@napierrailton)
26th September 2024, 19:14
I remember back in 2014 when Daniel beat Sebastian, everyone thought he was amazing.
I guess he was pretty amazing, he just lost his mojo at some point.
Nick T.
26th September 2024, 21:22
The stat gaps don’t even do it justice it either considering
-With Vettel, he had two podiums lost due to mechanical failures (one that disqualified him).
-He also had many more mechanical DNFs than Max when both cars were breaking down all the time.Though in that pairing, it was clear Danny couldn’t keep up with Max’s pace, especially in qualifying.
anon
26th September 2024, 21:35
Nick T., you can’t really call Ricciardo’s disqualification from the 2014 Australian GP a “mechanical failure”.
Red Bull were told several times during the practice sessions that the sensors showed the fuel flow rate was too high, and the data they submitted from the fuel injectors in an attempt to claim they were under the fuel flow rate limit actually ended up strengthening the case against Ricciardo, as that also showed he was over the fuel flow rate.
Red Bull made an intentional decision to ignore the warnings and try to argue their case afterwards, and you have to ask whether he’d have been on the podium if they had stuck to the legal fuel flow rate.
notagrumpyfan
26th September 2024, 21:39
That’s why it’s good to have laps ahead and finished ahead included in the stats rather than just the points.
Mechanical failures and DNF’s do not impact those stats as much as just looking at the points.
Davethechicken
26th September 2024, 21:52
Grumpy, mechanical failures in qualifying and practice do affect the laps lead stat massively. Eg in 2018 Danny started last 4 times due to car problems, and had several more qualys compromised due to same. That skews the stats.
As they say “there are lies, damned lies and statistics”
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th September 2024, 22:00
When it comes to mechanical failures, I remember well back in 2017: verstappen lost far more points than ricciardo in 2017 and viceversa in 2018.
Davethechicken
27th September 2024, 8:34
Max had fewer mechanical dnfs than Daniel in 2017.
Mayrton
27th September 2024, 8:51
I think those head to head stats are really insightful as to where he sits amongst other drivers. Not too bad, but no WDC material. He unfortunately has had this element of everyone having too high expectations because of the Vettel thing. But in hindsight we now know Vettel wasn’t much of a driver, but simply a very fast one over a single lap. Never won anything if not starting from the front row, a clear case of it being the car that won the championships.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
27th September 2024, 15:06
Your opinion of Vettel notwithstanding, I don’t see how you can say Daniel wasn’t WDC material if he could beat a 4 times world champion in the same car over a season. There are many drivers who would be capable of winning a WDC in the right car, but fewer who could do so against another WDC. Daniel was certainly WDC capable in some seasons, and if Mercedes had somehow dropped the ball in 2014 so that Redbull was the best car, I have no doubt Daniel would have brought home the championship.
FS005
27th September 2024, 22:13
Ricciardo only beat Vettel because he was struggling to adapt to the 2014 cars. And even then he got lucky in Canada and Hungary that the team messed up Vettel’s strategy which is why Vettel didn’t win those 2 races.
Ricciardo is worse than adapting than Vettel so 2014 is not really indicative of anything.
FS005
27th September 2024, 22:11
Vettel won and achieved plenty in F1. And finished P3 in Abu Dhabi despite starting from the pitlane in the slowest car in a straight line. Meanwhile Alonso couldn’t overtake one Renault in 2010.
If Vettel isn’t much of a driver than 99% of F1 drivers are worth nothing.
Nick T.
28th September 2024, 11:27
How is he not WDC material? You’re looking at him through the lens of today. Had his car been the fastest on the grid, he was fully capable of winning a WDC then for the majority of his career. DR is better than Button, Hakkinen, Hill, likely better than Vettel and many others who won a WDC. This is F1. All you need to be is just a Sainz and you’re WDC material. I think what you and many really mean when they say this is could they take a car that was borderline capable of winning a WDC and win a title or if they were up against our current WDCs in a title fight in the same car, would they win. And that’s a different argument.
Fletch (@fletchuk)
26th September 2024, 19:29
Loved the graphs thanks. Such a baffling career
Mayrton
27th September 2024, 8:51
I agree. Very insightful.
Johnny
26th September 2024, 20:11
Not so pretty when you put it in pictures.
stefano (@alfa145)
26th September 2024, 20:27
I, for one, don’t think F1 drivers lose it from one day to another. They might sit in a totally unfitting car from one day to another. But my reading of F1 driving is that if you put today’s Ricciardo in a 2020 Renault, or a 2014 Red Bull against 2020 Ocon or 2014 Vettel, he would produce very similar performances. Verstappen getting better during their stint is a different matter. It’s much easier/faster to get better and learn something than to forget what you leart. So I think these graphs show how you can gauge the relative quality of drivers. You can clearly say that Ricciardo is a better F1 driver than Hulk or Ocon are (unless they started improving again recently), as much as he is a worse driver than Norris. He is now probably worse than current Verstappen, but was on par with early career Verstappen and somewhat worse than Tsunoda, which himself is quite difficoult to gauge.
All this, giving the benefit of doubt of the car fitting the driver, which I doubt. If you land the wrong project, built around a different driver, and the team doesn’t adapt the car to your liking, you are half done. Only driver I can name who looks able to overcome this is Alonso, but it’s hard to imagine a team not adapting the car to his instructions, even if he just arrived there
Nick T.
26th September 2024, 21:17
I agree. I also think if he were in today’s RBR he’d be going well. However, I think his biggest issue may be with this generation of car as a whole. He was solid in 2021, but disappointing vs what was expected. It was in 2022 with the new gen. of car where he was an absolute disaster.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th September 2024, 22:06
IMO calling his 2021 season solid is too kind, he was already miles away from norris’ pace; norris might be a verstappen in terms of pace, so it’s fair we couldn’t expect him to match him, but at least he should’ve been able to be closer more often, at least winning quali\race comparison 40% of the times and generally more points than that too.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th September 2024, 22:06
He hardly had any good performance apart from monza.
André
26th September 2024, 21:50
You’re trying to find a simple linear answer to a non-linear problem. Remember Räikkönen. He was super fast in the 2000’s. Vettel was the Wunderkind at Redbull and pretty decent at Ferrari until about ~2017, beating Kimi regularly. Hamilton looked supreme up until 2021, and produced that heroic win from last in Interlagos. Etc, etc. Bottom line is, drivers fluctuate. In some circumstances they perform at the absolute top, in other circumstances they’re no better than average. Some drivers will have their average performance high over multiple sets of circumstances, while others will peak in a certain phase and fade away in others. Once we accept that this is not a linear problem, maybe we’ll start accepting the reality that this is still a human sport, and stop the useless comparisons about who’s better than whom. Because, today the answer may be right, and tomorrow it may be wrong. Remember when Schumacher returned? He didn’t look that great against Nico. Different cars, different phase of his life, plus he didn’t like those Pirelli tyres. Come back to 2024, look how quickly Max went from genius to average, once the Redbull didn’t give him the front end that he needs. Now Lando is the new prodigy. There are too many factors that need to be in place to enable a driver to be at his absolute peak.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th September 2024, 22:10
In schumacher’s defense, pirelli tyres get criticised every single weekend, and it’s been many years they’re in f1!
But I agree that it’s not so simple, and in f1 history you get some interesting cases, such as hill beating villeneuve as team mates, then villeneuve beating frentzen and frentzen beating hill, you can’t explain that without factoring into changes in the driver’s ability.
In that particular case, I think hill beating villeneuve was normal, probably helped by villeneuve’s lack of experience, then frentzen had a bad season the one chance he had the best car, or he was one of those drivers who couldn’t adapt to a top car, like fisichella, gasly, albon later on, and then he was back to his peak performance in 1999 while hill was demotivated and at the end of his career.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th September 2024, 22:43
André COTD-worthy post.
NM
27th September 2024, 10:32
i think Lando is missing to much changes to be the new prodigy.
David (@nvherman)
27th September 2024, 16:02
More importantly, can’t really call anyone a prodigy who is in their fifth season.
I say that as a huge Norris fan, but describing him as a prodigy is going too far
Mayrton
27th September 2024, 8:54
It’s like Windsor said. Once he left RB because of Max.. you simply settle for a money making career. It is impossible to be mentally still as good as before after making such ‘settling’ decision. It takes away the edge needed.
Davethechicken
26th September 2024, 20:47
The graphs are interesting but don’t reflect the full picture. For example in 2018 Riccardo had 8 DNF’s to Max’s 4 and started 4 races from last place due to technical problems. He hardly had a GP that season not beset by technical problems, none of which is represented in the graph. That changes the context considerably.
I am not arguing Riccardo would have beaten Max in 208 but it would have been an awful lot more evenly matched in the graph.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th September 2024, 22:12
Yes, but this goes the other way around too: in 2017 it was verstappen having dreadful reliability.
Edvaldo
26th September 2024, 23:15
I took the time to look at their reliability in 2017 and it turns out, Ricciardo was worse that year too.
I always knew that by the end of the season it was mostly even and forgot about it.
Now I’m taking a look again and Ricciardo retired from 6 races that year, 5 due to reliability, and 1 (Hungary) by being rammed by Max. He had issues or grid penalties for extra components in 5 races.
Max retired from 7 races that year, 4 due to reliability and 3 by contact at the start with someone (usually Raikkonen). He had issues or grid penalties for extra components in 2 races.
The fact that Red Bull and himself were pretty vocal about it while criticizing Renault to the point of dropping their name from the engine for the next season leads to the impression he had it worse than Ricciardo.
Mayrton
27th September 2024, 8:55
Yes, I remember we used to call Ricciardo ‘Lucky Ricky’ back then since Max was constantly have technical issues while Ricciardo just cruised through.
Davethechicken
27th September 2024, 22:56
@mayrton But in fact Max was luckier and Daniel had many more reliability issues in both 2017 and 2018…. Odd you thought the opposite, was there bias where you watched it?
SteveP
26th September 2024, 20:47
…and there was me thinking that Ricciardo was Australian rather than Austrian. :)
Imre (@f1mre)
26th September 2024, 21:16
He was born in Perth, of course he is Austrian.
XV
26th September 2024, 22:47
Perth? Isn’t that in Scotland?
Scottie (@scottie)
26th September 2024, 21:21
It’s a timely article to follow the news, but would a proof read go astray to pick up the errors? I wonder if some sort of autocorrect is changing words without it being known…
I hate to be that guy, but also care about the quality of reporting in my favourite F1 site.
Dusty
26th September 2024, 23:00
Racefans.net articles are typed from a smartphone and there’s no edit button. It’s part of their charm.
And my favorites too, I keep coming back for more typos everyday.
Dusty
26th September 2024, 23:04
Hulkenberg*
Mr Squiggle
26th September 2024, 23:43
Lando Norris fans keep trying to say he could have won at Monza in 2021, but its total rubbish.
The reason Lando finished behind Danny Ric at Monza was because he was slower in qualifying, slower in the sprint race and slower in the race itself.
Ric also scored the fastest lap on the last lap of that race which is normally taken by the F1 community to show that a driver was managing the pace and had more speed in hand.
This is why the team told Lando to stay P2. Its because Dan was faster throughout the whole weekend, and was the better driver/car combination on the day. The result was McLaren’s first 1-2 in decade.
For me, Monza 2021 was the best clue for Dan’s apparent drop in performance. When he is comfortable with all aspects of a car, his peak performances are better than all of his team mates. Even in 2024, his peak performance in Miami is better than Tsunoda’s peak.
Unfortunately, over time his comfort window has narrowed significantly. He always talks about building through a weekend…he’s just not one of those drivers who will sit in a car anywhere, on any track and drive the wheels off it.
In my humble, he has become a ideal Number 2 driver for a top team, (certainly better than Checo) but he was definitely out of place in the VCARB driver development seat.
Good luck Liam !
David (@nvherman)
27th September 2024, 16:04
Except that Norris wasn’t slower than Ricciardo in qualifying for Monza 2021
Toxic
27th September 2024, 0:24
Bla bla bla, he ran away from the fight with Verstappen and he paid the price for chickening out. Simple as that. I hoped he wouldn’t get the Red Bull drive again and was happy to see that he is much slower than Tsunoda. Give someone younger and better a chance.
Mr Squiggle
27th September 2024, 2:19
…Apart from the fight against Max in 2016 and 2017 when he outscored him to two years running.
And despite beating Max in the first half of 2018, Dan was asked to share the blame when Max weaved in front of him on the straight in Baku.
Dan didn’t run from a fight when he left Red Bull. He’d already ticked that box. Twice. And in 2018 was doing it again..
All he did was sniff all the BS in the air, and didn’t hang around to be Horner and Marko’s patsy.
Mayrton
27th September 2024, 8:59
He didn’t tick any box. Reliability hugely flatters his stats vs Max (who was on top of that also below 20 years old). He knew very well why he left. And threw it all away in that decision. Like Peter Windsor said, you can’t mentally come back from a decision to settle for money. It takes away the edge needed to be better than the others.
Edvaldo
27th September 2024, 12:56
It’s not reliability, it’s the fact that Max crashed a lot more than he did.
Davethechicken
28th September 2024, 13:51
What a strange comment @mayrton. Demonstrably made up.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
27th September 2024, 8:10
What a baffling career Ricciardo had. He drove for top team(s) and scored a good number of wins, so he wasn’t just someone akin to Frentzen, Trulli, or Fisichella who were great on their days but always seemed to do better in midfield teams. But then again, Ricciardo never really reached that potential we saw in 2014-16; never becoming a serious championship contender. Or maybe he reached just the level he “deserved” and this was it.
I think he was also partly driving at the wrong time. The previous young talents like Hamilton and Vettel had become established when Ricciardo made his mark, yet within a few seasons the next batch led by Verstappen came through, and Ricciardo wasn’t the next big thing any more.
Martin (@f1hornet)
27th September 2024, 13:30
I think it shows the importance of being in the right place at the right time. If the Red Bull in 2014 and 2015 was as dominant as previous years, there’s every chance he could have been a double WDC. If the Red Bull in Vettel’s era wasn’t so dominant, would we view him as a Ricciardo-level driver (i.e. good, but not great)?
David
27th September 2024, 10:07
Seeing the stats reinforces what an odd career he has had in terms of performances.
Getting the senior seat over Vergne by the finest of margins (with Vergne out of F1 a season later).
Destroying Vettel who had just won 4 championships in a row before the rule change.
Outscored by Kvyat a season later
Slowly losing performance to Verstappen (funnily enough the most logical period of his career)
Destroying Hulkenberg and Ocon – both solid midfield drivers
Losing badly to Norris in their first season together under the existing rules
Destroyed by Norris under the new rules
Losing to Tsunoda across both seasons.
He’s only just turned 35 so age shouldn’t be a factor, but to go from beating a 4x WDC to losing to a driver that the team only seems to want because of the engine deal is a massive change in fortunes.
We’ve heard him complain a lot about braking, I think it comes down to being a very late braker and needing a lot of confidence in that to get laptime. If the brakes aren’t where he wants them to be, he can’t adapt to add pace in other phases of the lap and he’s nowhere.
Seems like a nice guy though.
Edvaldo
27th September 2024, 13:48
He was much faster than Vergne though. Vergne was just like Alguesuari was before him, a slow qualifier who was stronger on race day because he saved many more new tyres, which made a lot of difference in a time when tyres didn’t last even 10 laps.
I always remember Mark Webber’s 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, starting from 18th, if the race had a few more laps he would’ve won because everybody was saving and he was pushing like a man man. It was faster just to do that than to save tyres.