F1: Ricciardo laughing all the way to the bank

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The McLaren F1 team sacked driver Daniel Ricciardo after last season with one year left on his contract because they felt he was not performing at the level he should be.

They also wanted to sign Oscar Piastri before anyone else snatched him up.

Ricciardo maintained that the car was not easy to get into a window where he could drive it to the best of his ability.

The first two races of 2023 have been disasters for the McLaren team.  The team did not hit its design targets in the offseason and the cars have suffered terrible reliability issues.

The latest mishaps for McLaren in Jeddah this weekend have once again raised questions about whether they were right to dump Ricciardo. “We’re on lap 3 and McLaren has already had two pit stops. This is insane. Again, the winner here is Daniel Ricciardo,” one pundit tweeted.

Another added: “Daniel Ricciardo definitely smiling even more than usual today with that McLaren result,” while a third commented: “The real winner is Daniel Ricciardo getting a load of cash out of that team before it crashed and burned. Feel bad for Piastri in many ways looking at that Alpine and probably saying why did I leave. Woeful.”

“I definitely think we were worse today,” McLaren driver Lando Norris told Sky Sports, comparing the car’s pace to Bahrain. “Our strengths and weaknesses clearly just aren’t in the right places.

“I wouldn’t even say we’re good in the corners, but we’re way too slow in the straights and we can’t use what we have in the corners, in high speed.

“I can get close, but then we just can’t do anything more than that. Even the Williams, when I got DRS open I’m barely quicker than them.”

Saudi Arabian GP Fastest Laps

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAP TIME AVG SPEED
1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 50 1:31.906 241.838
2 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda 38 1:32.188 241.098
3 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 50 1:32.240 240.962
4 63 George Russell Mercedes 50 1:32.433 240.459
5 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 50 1:32.822 239.451
6 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 47 1:32.941 239.145
7 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 47 1:33.056 238.849
8 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 49 1:33.222 238.424
9 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 44 1:33.374 238.036
10 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 50 1:33.392 237.990
11 21 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri Honda 49 1:33.609 237.438
12 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 50 1:33.780 237.005
13 24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 49 1:33.894 236.718
14 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Honda 50 1:33.931 236.624
15 4 Lando Norris Mclaren Mercedes 49 1:34.122 236.144
16 81 Oscar Piastri Mclaren Mercedes 48 1:34.287 235.731
17 77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 37 1:34.384 235.489
18 2 Logan Sargeant Williams Mercedes 49 1:34.469 235.277
19 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 7 1:35.140 233.617
20 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 24 1:35.567 232.574

 

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