One of the stories which has gone very much under the radar during the 2015 Formula One season has been the poor form of last year’s superstar, Daniel Ricciardo. With no podiums from the first nine races, and being outpaced by the very young Daniil Kvyat, it does make one wonder as to whether Daniel Ricciardo’s 2014 season was a one-off, and whether we could see that kind of form from him again in the future, or whether he will slip into oblivion as the likes of Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella and, to a degree, Sergio Perez all did.
Last year, three victories and firmly putting four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the shade earned Ricciardo my driver of the season, and many agreed with me. No driver who was not driving the all-conquering Mercedes won a race except for Ricciardo last season, and he took a comfortable third in the championship, despite the two Williams cars looking to be the better package across the season. However, this season has not been anywhere nearly as good for the 2009 British Formula Three champion.
Prior to 2014, Ricciardo was very much under the radar to many except for Red Bull. He was thrown into a lowly HRT seat towards the end of 2011 whilst juggling a Formula Renault 3.5 season, and he outpaced veteran (and Red Bull reject) Vitantonio Liuzzi in this period. This earned him a seat with Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso alongside stablemate Jean-Eric Vergne. The two lasted two seasons together, with Ricciardo clearly being the quicker across one lap. However, Vergne looked to be stronger in the races, and often ended up with the better race results when it mattered. Nonetheless, Ricciardo got the nod to replace countryman Mark Webber when he announced his retirement following the ‘Multi 21’ saga.
I need not go into much more detail about Ricciardo’s brilliant 2014 season, which saw him notch up three race victories and a further five third places. However, 2015 has been pretty dismal, with a Renault-shod car which has proven to be both unreliable and slow. Ricciardo has been vocal about how poor both the power unit and the chassis are this year, and his driving has come under fire at times too, most notably by pulling off a move on Kimi Räikkönen at Monaco which was more fit for Touring cars.
To add to his woes, he has been shown up at times by his young team-mate Daniil Kvyat. Kvyat has given the team its best race result of the season so far with fourth place, and the drivers are level 3-3 in terms of finishing ahead of each other on the road. If you’re getting a touch of déjà vu, then you should be, as this may remind you a bit of the situation at Red Bull last year.
There is one silver lining for Ricciardo, who has been linked with a seat at Ferrari despite having three years left on his contract, and that is in his former team mate Vettel. Vettel was written off by many after his poor 2014, in which he clearly struggled. However, his high-profile move to Ferrari has seen him return to form, and he is now playing the role of picking up the pieces whenever Mercedes trip up, and he has done on two of the three occasions where they have done this season.
Ricciardo showed his potential back in 2014. Whilst 2015 has been far from perfect from both he and the team, the ability must still surely be there. Whether a change of team or a change of some personnel at Red Bull (and possibly in the power unit department) is on the cards, if Ricciardo can find his 2014 form again, in the right car, he will be an absolute world beater once again. However, if he cannot recapture this form, and continues to publicly criticise the team which gave him his chance in F1, he may find himself swiftly falling down the grid.
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