By Joe Man
Watching Daniel Riccardo’s struggles has been hard for everyone. Even his competitors have voiced their sadness at the Australian’s troubles. It proves just how popular and important to the sport he is. His sacking from McLaren has hurt Riccardo badly however you can understand why the Papaya team had to do it.
Barring a miracle they are going to lose fourth in the constructors title to Alpine and it’s largely due to the lack of points from Riccardo. His team mate Lando Norris is fighting the Alpines single handed and there is no sign of improvement from the other side of the garage.
Right now Daniel’s only motivation is to try to win another seat for next year and those doors are closing fast. He clearly still has no feeling for this car and cannot get the best out of it. Riccardo now finds himself in a position where he can’t simply be himself. At his best he is the last of the late brakers, one of the best overtakers and the funny man of the grid. Even the famous smile now looks forced and it’s hard to be jovial when so far behind.
Sport is cruel at times and F1 is a game of the smallest margins. Once confidence is gone it’s incredibly hard to regain.
It’s been two years now that Daniel has been beaten nearly every week by his young teammate and eventually it had to get to him. We don’t know the full story yet behind his axing but it seems likely that there was a full fallout at some stage between driver and team.
Riccardo has been around the sport for a long time now and would have wanted the team to start making the car to his liking. This has fell on deaf ears with McLaren fully behind their other driver. The way it was handled however looks really bad on the team. They publicly backed Daniel as their man even though they had signed a replacement weeks before.
This is where I believe the team has made a big mistake and so has their new driver Oscar Piastri. Did Riccardo have to be replaced?
The answer is yes. It simply wasn’t getting better. Due to the circumstances of how the deal worked out however, Piastri now finds himself in a very interesting position.
In 2023 he will walk into the team with great expectations, a world class teammate and an underperforming car. We have no idea how good the 2023 Mclaren will be but they are now behind Alpine. As of course we know Piastri could have and probably should have gone to the French team. He would have had Estaban Ocon as a team mate and a long history with the team. It would have been a seamless transition and a more forgiving environment for him to find his feet.
He will be given some time to show what he can do at Mclaren but he will need to be hot on Landos shoes quickly otherwise the pressure will mount and Mclaren will find themselves back at square one.
2022’s silly season has had more rumours than a Hollywood trash magazine but it’s still not fully clear. It is though becoming clear that Riccardos options are drying up.
When Piastri jumped to Mclaren it looked likely that Daniel would return to Alpine.
Although they haven’t officially said no, Riccardos return to Alpine seems less likely every race. Having left the team after only two year Daniel may not have been forgiven for his lack of loyalty. Unfortunately his decision to leave the then Renault team now looks as bad a career decision as his decision to leave red bull for them. Rumours of a move to Haas also seem to be going cold which leaves only Williams. Although they are languishing at the back of the grid they could be the best fit for Riccardo to rebuild his confidence and career. Time will tell!
It truly has been all about the Australian’s this silly season and now another one has come roaring to the front.
Enter Jack Doohan!
Alpine have made it clear that they want Pierre Gasly in their second seat. For this to happen the FIA will need to break their own rules to allow Colton Herta to switch from Indycar without enough points for a super licence required for F1. It’s looking unlikely that this will happen which leaves Alpine once again without a second driver.
They do however have one more Academy driver by the name of Jack Doohan. All this has coincided with Doohan hitting an impressive run of form with wins and and pole positions in F2. Its a big jump for the young driver but he is showing he has the speed to compete at the top level.
It seems we have been waiting an age for all this to unfold. Once the FIA rule on Colton Herta the rest could sort itself out quickly. If they rule against Herta then Gasly will be condemned to another season with Alpha Tauri.All this means we are looking very likely to be saying a sad farewell to the honey badger for 2023. It will be very hard to get back on the grid but I’m sure I’m not the only who hopes one day we will see Riccardo back fighting at his best.
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