How Ricciardo’s F1 experience played a role in his downfall

Racing Bulls racing director Alan Parmane believes Daniel Ricciardo Using his Formula 1 experience to ‘overthink things’ played a part in his downfall last season.

Ricciardo returned to the team (then known as AlphaTauri) as a replacement midway through the 2023 campaign. Nick de VriesHowever, a broken metacarpal suffered during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix forced him to miss five races.

Australian retains his seat with newly nominated RB team together yuki tsunoda For the last season with the goal of becoming sergio perezRed Bull’s successor, returning to the seat he once held max verstappen Which he left at the end of 2018.

But after consistently poor performances – highlighted only by a surprising fourth place in the Miami Grand Prix sprint race – Ricciardo was eventually dropped. Liam LawsonWho has since become Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate.

Asked if he knew why Ricciardo struggled with the VCARB-01 car, Parmane told Autosport: “Honestly not.

“I don’t know and he doesn’t know either. We sat down and talked, tried to figure it out. I was definitely worried that he was thinking too much about things – he was worried about the tires, that they Couldn’t cope with the speed at which he would be asking them.

“It felt like he was using his vast experience to second-guess things that probably weren’t right, because Yuki wasn’t doing that and was driving as fast as he could And it was working.

“He had a tough time and then of course we went to Miami and Daniel made it fourth on the grid (for the sprint race). And you think, ‘Ah, it all clicked.’ He was the same Daniel I knew at Renault.

“You do that in the sprint on a Saturday morning, then you go to (Grand Prix) qualifying in the afternoon and he’s 18th. It was a bit of a mystery, to be honest.”

Ricciardo was on the sidelines before rejoining the Faenza-based outfit and was let go mclaren At the end of 2022, the first year of the current regulatory era.

Lewis Hamilton It has also been difficult to continue his driving style with ground-effect cars, especially in qualifying, while emerging drivers are looking quite successful. On whether it was a case of the championship veterans failing to understand the nuances of the car, Parmane replied: “I don’t know, that’s the honest answer. I don’t really think so.

“Look at Fernando (Alonso) at Spa last year. He was huge, incredible. I know that’s a convenient thing to say coming from guys like (Franco) Colapinto, (Oliver) Bearman… and of course Franco looked amazing in his first few games on the run.

“But it’s very difficult – one of the things we said at the time was that it’s great when a driver comes in and does it, but to do it every week, it’s a tough thing.

“If you look at his (Colapinto’s) last few weekends, he hasn’t been that good… In Mexico he was excellent, although he didn’t qualify so well, then Brazil certainly not particularly good. Well, Las Vegas wasn’t good either.

“I think it becomes harder for those young guys to maintain that level every week. They have a lot to do away from the track too, so they’re not just left to sit with the engineers and focus on that. Do it.

“There’s now all kinds of PR stuff that comes with Formula 1, and I’m pretty sure these young guys aren’t used to it, so there are distractions everywhere. But there’s no doubt they’re influential. , that’s for sure.”