Daniel Ricciardo’s difficulties in F1 did not necessarily mark the end of his career. This is what its former CEO, Peter Bayer, who is at the helm of Racing Bulls, thinks. According to him, the Australian could still have something to offer.
“Yes of course” Bayer responded to Planet F1. “I think all these guys have something to offer. I don’t know if he wants it. I don’t think he’s considering a return, at least not yet.”
Bayer recalls a discussion during which he realized that Ricciardo was in trouble with current ground-effect cars: “I think back to a conversation I had with Franz [Tost] last year after Abu Dhabi [2023].”
“In Abu Dhabi we brought, for the first time, a new generation floor, which was really like going to the extreme of these ground effect cars and we had the same floor on both cars.”
“Yuki loved it. Daniel had difficulty accepting it. Franz then said ‘I’m curious to see if Daniel can get over it, if this new type of car will suit him’.”
“I think now, looking back, that he probably had difficulties with this generation of cars. It’s a different way of driving. I think that, although the driver can always adapt, this year was so close – sometimes we saw 20 cars a second apart.”
Bayer also remembers Ricciardo’s encouraging performances in his final year, but which were never followed by regular progress.
“Adaptation is one thing, mastery is another. We saw that Canada had an extraordinary performance. In Miami, he had an incredible performance in the Sprint race. He did a remarkable job. And then , three hours later, during qualifying, he was nowhere.”
“I think he didn’t have that decisive moment, where he said to himself, ‘I understand, this is what I have to do. This is what I have to do. This is the configuration that “They tried a ton of things, because ultimately it’s up to the team to give the driver the car he needs, but, yeah, they struggled.”
Alan Permane, the sporting director of Racing Bulls, had already worked with Ricciardo at Renault, and he admits not having found him: “The Daniel I knew when we were together at Renault, everything went very easily for him.”
“He arrived and quickly got up to speed. He was quick in qualifying, fast in the race, and did everything, as always, with a smile, and managed to get a few podiums along the way with Renault. “
“It was certainly difficult for him here [chez Racing Bulls]and it’s strange because he had some exceptional weekends like Miami, where he qualified fourth for the Sprint, and I think he finished fourth in the Sprint. We said to ourselves that it was good, and then in the afternoon, he qualified 18th for the main race.
Permane admits that he does not understand the difficulties encountered by his former driver with current F1: “I don’t know what it is, and if I did, I’m sure we would have worked together and fixed it, but he doesn’t know what it is.”
“There’s an inconsistency, or a difficulty with the tires, or whatever, I don’t know. But the fact that Yuki is able to take the same car and perform reasonably consistently, I know that it was very frustrating for Daniel.”
In any case, it’s not for lack of trying to help him: “We spent a lot of time looking at the data and, certainly with his race engineers, he handled that incredibly professionally, looking at himself the whole time.”
“We were constantly making sure, of course, that the car was working as it was supposed to, but Daniel was spending time, with his engineers, seeing how he could improve and what he could do better. I know that he was as frustrated as anyone that he couldn’t keep his promises.”
Is this a problem with the developments of VCARB 01? Did he have the same car as Tsunoda?
“I don’t think the design or the failure of some of our aerodynamic improvements affected Daniel. And yes, both cars had the same equipment throughout the season, so I don’t think that played a role. role, and I don’t think the car has become any less favorable to a driver.”
“I don’t really understand the reasons for Daniel’s lack of performance, because obviously there was a lack of performance. It was a capable car, on occasion, not every race, but quite often capable of going into Q3, but Daniel was eliminated in Q1, and that was a huge source of frustration for him.”
“We did everything we could to support him and help him, and we all tried to figure out what was going on. Pilots come and go because people think either their time is up or it’s “There’s someone better out there, but he definitely had the same equipment.”
