Daniel Ricciardo is far from giving up. The popular ‘Honey Badger’ is fighting to stay in Formula 1. After a rather disappointing 2024 season so far, his seat at the Racing Bulls is in jeopardy. If the Australian wants to continue driving in the premier class next year, he will have to step up his game. That is exactly what Ricciardo plans to do and is changing his approach to do so.
“I am highly motivated to do more than I have done so far this year,” the 34-year-old explains. But how is that supposed to work? Two things are essential for a good F1 performance: the car and the driver. Ricciardo will focus more on the latter in the future.
“We will always try to perfect the car, but I also have to look at myself to make sure I’m in a good position to get decent results,” said the Australian. “It’s obviously been a bit harder for me to find the sweet spot this year. If I look back ten years ago, it used to be kind of effortless.”
Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve also noticed that Ricciardo is not quite up to par in 2024 and strongly criticized the driver. The Honey Badger then fired back even more sharply. Here is the verbal argument:
Weak performance: Daniel Ricciardo looks for reasons away from the racetrack
The eight-time race winner is convinced that things can and must go better. “Deep down, I know what I’m capable of,” Ricciardo assures. “So I try to take on as much responsibility as possible.” In order to get back to his old strength, the Australian has introduced a new way of dealing with the team, based on openness and constructive criticism.
“After the weekend in Monaco, I was a bit emotionally down because I didn’t perform well on a track that I love,” admits Ricciardo. “So I was a bit behind after the debriefing. We’re pretty open with each other, but I wanted to make sure everyone could tell me what they thought was going wrong.”
Daniel Ricciardo demands direct feedback: No kid gloves necessary
And so a feedback session began, designed to reawaken lost potential. “I said: ‘What are you missing? I want to do this right,'” says the Racing Bulls driver. “And at the same time I said what I was missing and why I was feeling a bit flat. Maybe the schedule is a bit too full at the moment or whatever. We had a very open conversation and it was great. I’m almost 35 and I don’t need to be treated with kid gloves anymore. I’d rather people just be very direct with me.”
Ricciardo got feedback from various people. One big conclusion from the discussions: Often the problem is not the performance in the car. “Basically everyone around me, the team, the engineers, even my inner circle, expressed constructive criticism,” explains the 34-year-old. “A lot of it concerned energy management over the course of the weekend. So it’s not really about what I’m doing in the car.”
The goal is clear for Ricciardo: “It’s just about being able to get in the car and feel like I’m ready to go. So I’m trying to sort out some of these things. If I care about something, I want to be able to get it off my chest.” The new approach is already bearing fruit. “I was definitely a bit more excited, hungrier and happier at the Canada weekend,” says the Australian. The four points he took home from Montreal can confirm this.