The 2024 Formula 1 season is only three rounds deep, but the Daniel Ricciardo pile-on has been immense.
There’s no doubt Ricciardo has failed to fire as expected so far this year. His younger teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, has generally had his measure, particularly in qualifying, pushing the dream of Red Bull Racing further from the horizon.
But with the pair closely matched on race pace and with RB continuing to speak positively of the Australian’s contribution to the car and the team more broadly, it’s too early to man the panic stations.
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Still, there’s work to be done for the Aussie to change the course of his campaign.
In the opinion of one former world champion, it’s a matter of his mindset as he grapples with his thoroughly midfield car.
This weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix will be an interesting test of whether Ricciardo can put mind over matter, particularly with one fewer hour of practice after he makes way for another Red Bull junior to take over his car on Friday.
Elsewhere, Williams has offered an update on the status of Alex Albon’s crashed chassis ahead of this weekend’s race.
HILL TELLS RICCIARDO TO BE LESS ‘FUSSY’ AMID RB STRUGGLES
Damon Hill, the 1996 Formula 1 world champion, thinks Daniel Ricciardo is out of form because he’s become too “fussy” about his expectations of the car.
Ricciardo has struggled for one-lap pace in the opening three rounds of a career-critical season. He is yet to qualify inside the top 10, and he bombed out of qualifying in 18th at his home Australian Grand Prix.
Though he’s been much closer to teammate Yuki Tsunoda on race pace, the Japanese driver has outscored him 6-0.
The slow start to the year has led to unfounded speculation that the ruthless Red Bull driver program could rip the Aussie from his seat before the middle of the season.
Hill said 242-race veteran Ricciardo’s troubles were founded on being too particular about his demands of the car.
“Maybe he’s one of these drivers who’s matured too quickly,” Hill told F1 Nation. “You get to the point where you become fussy about how you like your car.
“When they’re very young they don’t ask the question. Look at Ollie Bearman [in Saudi Arabia]. They get one go. They don’t know anything else. They just drive.
“Once you’ve had lots of experience, sometimes the experience overwrites everything else and you’re looking for that good experience again in the set-up and feeling from the car when it’s not going to come because it’s a different car.
“Someone like Yuki’s been told, ‘You’ve got to drive it, this is what it is’ and is just getting on with it, and Daniel’s looking for something else.
“Some drivers have a style. They need a set-up, they need a kind of car, but you can’t get it.”
Hill suspected it was a similar problem that undid his McLaren career.
“It’s sort of reminiscent,” he said. “He never felt comfortable in McLaren. He was hunting all the time for set-up. The same story is coming out now from the RB.
“There are only so many times you can do that.”
Speaking after his poor qualifying result in Melbourne, Ricciardo denied the connection to his McLaren difficulties.
“To be clear, with the car I feel confident in terms of braking and balance and all that,” he said. “It’s not [like] McLaren, where I was a bit unsure and I couldn’t push the car here.
“Some corner speeds I see I’m simply not able to gain enough speed.”
Hill said Ricciardo needed to stop trying to tame the car and focus instead deal with the equipment’s shortcomings.
“At some point you have to go to Daniel: ‘Listen, your career is about to evaporate. You just have to get over it and just drive this damned thing and not look for perfection. You’re never going find it. It’s not coming. You’re going to have to find a way to drive this thing and wring its neck, because you’re getting beaten’.”
Ricciardo under pressure as Lawson looms | 00:39
IWASA SET FOR RICCIARDO’S SEAT IN JAPAN
Red Bull-backed Super Formula driver Ayumu Iwasa will commandeer Daniel Ricciardo’s RB seat during first practice at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The single-session driver swap fulfils one of RB’s mandatory two rookie practice outings for the season, as required of each team by the regulations.
It also creates a temporary all-Japanese, all-Honda-backed line-up for the Honda-powered RB team at the Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit.
Iwasa is the 2020 French Formula 4 champion and finished fourth on last year’s Formula 2 title table behind Aussie Jack Doohan.
This season the 22-year-old has been placed in Japan’s Super Formula with the two-time reigning constructors champion Mugen Motorsports, with which fellow Red Bull junior Liam Lawson finished a superb second in last year’s championship standings.
Iwasa drove last year’s AlphaTauri in the post-season young driver test in Abu Dhabi, but this Friday will be his first experience taking part in an F1 weekend.
“I’m so excited to drive F1 car again,” he said on social media. “I’m very looking forward to drive Visa Cash App RB F1 Team car in front of many fans there.”
Though each driver must give up one practice session per year to a rookie, the timing and location is somewhat unusual notwithstanding the obvious Japan and Honda connections.
Usually teams save their rookie test sessions for later in the year, by which time the full-time drivers are well acclimatised to their cars.
Rookies also tend to appear at European or familiar Middle Eastern circuits visited by Formula 2. It’s extremely rare to deploy rookies at the Suzuka Circuit, among the most difficult and punishing on the calendar and one at which few young drivers have racing experience.
The timing of the switch will also hurt Ricciardo, who is still hunting for a car configuration to help him unlock his one-lap speed. Losing a third of his practice time at a track as tough as Suzuka one week after his Melbourne qualifying disaster could leave him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend.
First practice takes place on Friday at 1:30pm (AEDT).
WILLIAMS TO BE WITHOUT THIRD CHASSIS IN JAPAN
Williams principal James Vowles says his team has repaired Alex Albon’s crashed chassis from Australia but will again be without a third tub for this weekend’s race in Japan.
Albon suffered a high-sped crash during first practice at Albert Park last weekend, damaging his chassis and forcing him to sit out the rest of the day.
Williams was forced to reveal it was yet to build a third chassis despite being three races into the season, and the team subsequently made the awkward decision to withdraw Logan Sargeant from the rest of the weekend to hand his car to Albon, figuring the Thai driver was the better bet to score points at the attritional Melbourne circuit.
Albon qualified 12th and finished 11th.
Speaking after returning to the UK, Vowles said repair work on the damaged chassis was continuing apace, leaving him confident of having both drivers on track this weekend.
“We’re in a good place for having the chassis back early enough for Suzuka,” he said. “A lot of the work was done actually back in Melbourne.
“There were photographs and techniques called NDT — which is non-destructive testing — that allow us to fully understand how big the damage is and what we have to do.
“That preparation was key. What it meant was already at 2am on Monday [last week, when the chassis arrived in the UK] work could start.
“In Suzuka we’ll have two cars without too many issues.”
Williams was caught short due to massive upheaval in the design office to modernise the team after decades of underinvestment.
Grove was only just ready for pre-season testing and the first races, but the rush to build the pool of spare parts meant the time line for the third chassis was pushed later into the year.
Vowles didn’t commit to a date to have a third car ready, saying only that it wouldn’t be ready for Suzuka.
“We won’t have a spare chassis in Japan,” he said.
“It is weeks and weeks of work. It is thousands of hours spent in composites in order to get it ready. It’s one of the biggest jobs within an F1 team.
“Especially with the work that we’re doing now on chassis number two, there is again going to be a small amount of delay.
“It will be with us soon. In the meantime, we have to deal with the circumstances we have in front of us.”
The team boss said in Melbourne that he was hopeful of delivery by China at the end of the month.