McLaren Unboxed | Welcome to Miami
The inaugural Miami Grand Prix gave us everything you'd expect from a new circuit in a sun-baked city full of celebrities. On track, however, fortune was not on the side of Lando..
Name | Daniel Ricciardo |
Country | ![]() |
Place of Birth | Perth |
Date of Birth | Jul 1st 1989 - 32 years old |
Season Entries | 12 |
First Race | 2011 British F1 GP |
Last Race | 2022 Miami F1 GP |
First Pole | 2016 Monaco F1 GP |
Last Pole | 2018 Mexican F1 GP |
First Win | 2014 Canadian F1 GP |
Last Win | 2021 Italian F1 GP |
First Podium | 2014 Spanish F1 GP |
Last Podium | 2021 Italian F1 GP |
Daniel Ricciardo F1 Stats | |
Race Starts | 215 |
Race Wins | 8 (3,7%) |
Pole Positions | 3 (1,4%) |
Fastest Laps | 16 (7,4%) |
Podiums | 32 (14,9%) |
Points Finishes | 126 (58,6%) |
Retirements | 36 (16,7%) |
Wins from pole | 1 |
Front Row Starts | 10 |
Total Points | 1.285 |
Total Laps | 11.746 |
After the remarkable success of Sebastian Vettel the attention now turns to the next superstar to make the grade from Red Bull’s famed driving school.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo has made a brilliant start to his Red Bull career, and was expected to lead the team into a new era after Vettel’s move to Ferrari, and win world championships.
The 26-year-old stunned the sport by dominating his multiple world champion team-mate in 2014. He proved that he has the speed, mentality and racecraft to go on and win titles himself.
However, despite a slightly sour 2015 dominated by engine issues and poor luck, the Australian remains one of the best drivers on the grid.
After an unspectacular spell at Toro Rosso, there were doubts over Ricciardo’s credentials but he has emphatically put those to bed and emerged as one of the hottest drivers in modern Formula 1.
The former Formula Renault and Formula Three champion got his F1 break through mid-way through 2011 when the, now liquidated, HRT team signed him to replace Narain Karthikeyan. An agreement was reached between Red Bull and HRT and Ricciardo raced until the end of the season, albeit in the grids slowest car.
After a tough baptism of fire, which saw him finish only as high as 18th, Ricciardo made the expected step to sign for Toro Rosso, the team where Red Bull’s junior drivers hone their talents, in 2012.
Even before a wheel had been turned it was expected that Mark Webber’s eventual replacement at Red Bull would be one of Ricciardo or his débutante team mate Jean-Eric Vergne, which created a fascinating rivalry.
This intensified when Ricciardo overtook Vergne on the final lap on the season’s opening race in Australia to finish 9th and score an extra championship point.
Unfortunately for both Ricciardo and Vergne, Torro Rosso fell behind their midfield rivals as they struggled to develop their car.
Despite this, Ricciardo battled hard and four points finishes out of five races earned praise up and down the grid. However, despite being the more convincing of the two protégées, Ricciardo finished behind Vergne in the final standings by a substantial six points.
In 2013, the Aussie upped his game and crucially beat Vergne in both qualifying and races. He was awarded a promotion to replace the retiring Webber for 2014 but, despite his obvious talent, he was not expected to challenge then 3 times world champion Sebastian Vettel.
The German admittedly struggled with the car and he had the majority of poor reliability, but there is no doubt that his reputation took a hit after being well beaten by Ricciardo.
The young hopeful won races in Canada, Hungary and Belgium and although he benefited from Mercedes errors, he showed composure and a killer instinct.
He remained in the championship hunt until the last few races, highlighting how successful 2014 season he had.
In 2015, things went backwards instead of forwards. His new team-mate Daniil Kvyat was less consistent but finished ahead of him in the table, while the Aussie suffered awful luck with reliability. The Renault engine still couldn't cope with the Mercedes power unit and Red Bull was putting all the pressure on the French engine producer to perform better.
In the 2016 F1 season Red Bull did receive a better power unit and was able to be faster than Ferrari and started winning races again. Daniel Kvyat was replace by 18 year old Dutch driver Max Verstappen. The Dutchman who was showing a lot of skill and talent at Toro Rosso and had to push Ricciardo to a higher level, and he did.
His first race in Spain was a fairy-tale. He didn't put a foot wrong that weekend and even won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix on his debut race for Red Bull. Ricciardo woke up and was showing his focus and determination again to push the team and the RB13 to it's limits to score his first pole in Monaco.
The most memorable race of Ricciardo was of course the 2016 Malaysian GP. Lewis Hamilton was cruising around with a big lead in front of the race, when his Mercedes W07 engine blew-up on the main straight.
Max and Daniel were driving 2nd and 3rd and started battling hard for the lead. Daniel showed he's the boss at Red Bull and won the race. Max settled for 2nd and Rosberg finished 3rd on the podium.
De podium ceremony was quite a show because of Ricciardo's shoe champagne drinking habit. The complete podium drunk champagne out of his shoe. Even Red Bull Racing team principle Christian Horner couldn't escape it.
He scored 8 podiums and won 1 race in 2016 and took 3rd place in the 2016 drivers championship. Because of the Mercedes domination, this was the best result he could ever get.
Daniel Ricciardo takes the chequered flag and the win in the RB13 at the 2017 Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix
In 2017 Ricciardo also won 1 race. This was the crazy race at Azerbaijan. Where started on P10 and wasn't expecting much of the race. But Ricciardo did what he always does and just stayed cool and just waited for some good overtaking opportunities and with a bit of luck and a good race strategy by the team, he won the race!
With 5 technical related retirements and one collision caused by his teammate Verstappen, he scored 9 podiums in total. He finished the season on 5th place with a 32 points lead to his highly-rated teammate Max Verstappen who also had a lot of bad luck that season.
If the RB13 would have been faster right from the start of the season and the Renault power unit would have had better reliability than a 3rd place would have been possible.
Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Red Bull Racing walks to the drivers parade before the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit on November 25, 2018 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Ricciardo and Verstappen were great contenders and really lifted up the Red Bull Racing team, but from the look of it Ricciardo had to up his game to keep up with his 8 years younger very talented teammate Max in 2018. The Australian driver did win in China and Monaco but was outperformed by Dutchman Verstappen.
After the Hungarian GP in the middle of the summer break, the news got out that Ricciardo was leaving Red Bull and joining the Renault F1 team for 2019 to become teammates with German driver Nico Hulkenberg. A lot of questions were asked after the news travelled around the globe. His mean reason was that he wanted a change and that he had his doubts on the 2019 Honda engine programme for Red Bull. Future willl tell if Ricciardo chose well.
Ricciardo ended up as 6th on the championship table. Technical failures were the main reason for this bad result.
Daniel Ricciardo, Renault R.S.19, Nico Hulkenberg, Renault R.S. 19, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90 during the Italian GP at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 07, 2019 (Photo by Simon Galloway / LAT Images)
With Renault, Ricciardo had a tricky start to the 2019 season, with only four point-scoring finishes in the first 12 races of the campaign. The car wasn't reliable and most circuits did not bond well with the R.S.19 which, ultimately, hurt the Australian's first races with the French team.
However, Ricciardo dominated his teammate in qualifying 9-3 and scored 22 points before the summer break, 5 more than Hulkenberg. His best result with Renault in the first half of 2019 was 6th place at Montreal, where he had a solid performance and even battled with Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes.
After three races without scoring points, the Australian finished in an impressive fourth place in the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo started the race in fifth and just five-tenths behind the Poleman Charles Leclerc due to Renault's impressive straight-line velocity at the temple speed at Monza.
Ricciardo had not finished in the top four in a Grand Prix since the 2018 Abu Dhabi GP, his last race with Red Bull.
The Australian only finished in the top ten four times in the last seven races, although his sixth place in Japan did not count because both Renault cars were disqualified for having an automatic brake bias adjustment system. Ricciardo finished his first year with Renault in ninth place with 54 points.
The 2020 season started with a weird sense between Ricciardo and Renault, as the Australian had already announced in May 14th that he was due to leave the French squad and join McLaren.
Still, Ricciardo performed well at the start of the shortened campaign, achieving four Top-5 finishes in the first 10 races before giving the French brand its first two podiums since 2011 at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix in Nurburgring and in the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
Ricciardo finished the 2020 season in fifth place of the World Drivers' Championship with Renault before departing to McLaren for 2021.
AUTODROMO NAZIONALE MONZA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 12: Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, 1st position, celebrates on the podium during the Italian GP at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday September 12, 2021 in Monza, Italy. (Photo by Steven Tee / LAT Images)
In the first part of the 2021 season Ricciardo had a hard to keep up with his teammate Lando Norris. The young British drivers was driving his 3rd season and was fully adapted to the McLaren, while Ricciardo was having a hard time to adapt.
Ricciardo was definitely behind Norris for most of the 2021 season, but he was great during the 2021 Italian Grand
Prix weekend, and positioned himself quite well on Saturday's Sprint Race, and then in the GP. From P2, Ricciardo surpassed Max Verstappen off the line and dominated the race from that point.
Lewis Hamilton looked like the biggest threat to Ricciardo due to strategy for the second half of the race, but after a crash with Verstappen, the British champion could not go for the win. The Australian led a McLaren 1-2 and gave the Woking team its first win since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, when Jenson Button won.
Ricciardo finished the year in eighth place, two spots behind his teammate Norris, and scored 115 points.
Official Daniel Ricciardo website: http://danielricciardo.com/
2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
25th | 18th | 14th | 3th | 8th | 3th | 4th | 6th | 9th | 5th | 8th | 11th |
Year | Team | Engine | GP | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Pod | Pole | Laps | FL | Avg Pts | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | ![]() | Mercedes | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 269 | 0 | 2.20 | 11 |
2021 | ![]() | Mercedes | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1268 | 1 | 5.23 | 115 |
2020 | ![]() | Renault | 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 979 | 2 | 7.00 | 119 |
2019 | ![]() | Renault | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1120 | 0 | 2.57 | 54 |
2018 | ![]() | Renault | 21 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1034 | 4 | 8.10 | 170 |
2017 | ![]() | Renault | 20 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 904 | 1 | 10.00 | 200 |
2016 | ![]() | Renault | 21 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 1267 | 4 | 12.19 | 256 |
2015 | ![]() | Renault | 19 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1080 | 3 | 4.84 | 92 |
2014 | ![]() | Renault | 19 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 1097 | 1 | 12.53 | 238 |
2013 | ![]() | Ferrari | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 994 | 0 | 1.05 | 20 |
2012 | ![]() | Ferrari | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1175 | 0 | 0.50 | 10 |
2011 | ![]() | Cosworth | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 559 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
1th | 8 Times |
2th | 6 Times |
3th | 18 Times |
4th | 24 Times |
5th | 15 Times |
6th | 16 Times |
7th | 12 Times |
8th | 7 Times |
9th | 9 Times |
10th | 10 Times |
11th | 9 Times |
12th | 10 Times |
13th | 11 Times |
14th | 6 Times |
15th | 5 Times |
16th | 2 Times |
17th | 1 Time |
18th | 5 Times |
19th | 5 Times |
20th | 1 Time |
22th | 1 Time |
DNF | 31 Times |
DSQ | 2 Times |
NC | 1 Time |
Year | Race | No | Team | Engine | Grid | Pos | Retired | Pts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | 2018 | 2018 Mexican F1 GP | 3 | Red Bull | Renault | 1 | DNF | Hydraulics | 0 |
2 | 2018 | 2018 Monaco F1 GP | 3 | Red Bull | Renault | 1 | 1 | 25 | |
1 | 2016 | 2016 Monaco F1 GP | 3 | Red Bull | Renault | 1 | 2 | 18 |
Year | Team | Team Mate | Best Pos | Points | Wins | Poles | Pos | Quali | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | HRT | Narain Karthikeyan | 18 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Vitantonio Liuzzi | 16 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 5 | ||
2012 | Toro Rosso | Jean-Eric Vergne | 9 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 16 | 4 |
2013 | Toro Rosso | Jean-Eric Vergne | 7 | 6 | 20 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 15 | 4 |
2014 | Red Bull | Sebastian Vettel | 1 | 2 | 238 | 167 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 8 |
2015 | Red Bull | Daniil Kvyat | 2 | 2 | 92 | 95 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 6 |
2016 | Red Bull | Daniil Kvyat | 2 | 3 | 60 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
Max Verstappen | 1 | 1 | 220 | 191 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 7 | 11 | 6 | ||
2017 | Red Bull | Max Verstappen | 1 | 1 | 200 | 168 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 12 |
2018 | Red Bull | Max Verstappen | 1 | 1 | 170 | 249 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 16 | 7 | 14 |
2019 | Renault | Nico Hülkenberg | 4 | 5 | 54 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 | 14 | 7 |
2020 | Renault | Esteban Ocon | 3 | 2 | 119 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 15 | 2 |
2021 | McLaren | Lando Norris | 1 | 2 | 115 | 160 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 8 | 14 |
2022 | McLaren | Lando Norris | 6 | 3 | 11 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
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