Ricciardo and Renault: great promises and a painful breakup

At the heart of summer 2018, the transfer window of Formula 1 gets carried away. So pushed towards the exit at Red Bull under the growing influence of the future world champion Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo decides to take on a new challenge by signing a juicy contract with Renault F1 Team for two years, 2019 and 2020.

The Australian is considered one of the best trigger players on the board at this time. At Red Bull, the man with the XXL smile has acquired a reputation as a magnificent attacker, thanks to his overtakes on tenors. Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen: everyone has already had a cold once from the Perth native during his lease with the Austro-British team between 2014 and 2018.

Daniel Ricciardo therefore turns his back on 10 years spent in the energy drink business, on the promise of a sports project built around it exposed by Cyril Abiteboul. The French boss of the Jaune-et-Noir wants to make the man with eight Grand Prix successes his leader and thus bring the Diamond back to the highest level of the sport, while the brand is making painful progress since its comeback in 2016.

Time for friends and adventure. © DPPI

2019: Where are you Danny?

The season opener in front of their home crowd in Melbourne (Australia) will be symptomatic of a frustrating campaign. As soon as the lights go out, the wearer of No. 3 passes into the grass and tears off his front wing. Yes, driving a Renault is (too often) synonymous with starting from the peloton, where Red Bull was at the top of the table!

Daniel Ricciardo makes blunders unworthy of his rank, like when he backs up on the Toro Rosso of poor Daniil Kvyat in Azerbaijan. At Spa-Francorchamps, he hangs on with Lance stroll (Racing Point) and in Sao Paulo, he collides Kevin Magnussen (Haas) without which an exceptional result, on a Renault scale, was possible. It is not for these escapades that Cyril Abiteboul paid out his checkbook!

2020: A happy end to the season

In the offseason, his friend Nico Hulkenberg is replaced by the ghost Esteban Ocon. It's no longer a question of laughing, we must assume leadership for this second year of partnership, delayed due to the pandemic. From the third race, Daniel Ricciardo showed undeniable progress, highlighted by a car which finally combines reliability and engine performance. At Silverstone, he finished at the foot of the podium and missed third place by only 1”2 behind Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).

What follows is a series of 11 events finished in points. He approached the podium patiently (4th at Mugello, overtaken at the end of the race by the Red Bull ofAlbon). The deliverance comes in the cold of the Nürburgring, where the Australian offers Renault the first podium in almost 10 years! An intense moment.

Considered “the best of the rest”, implied behind the trio of Mercedes-Red Bull-Ferrari, Daniel Ricciardo's Renault returns to the box at Imola a few weeks later. His consistency during the final sprint allowed him to finish the year in a superb fifth position. The marriage between Renault and Daniel Ricciardo is starting to bear fruit, the sky is looking good. Except that on May 14, 2020, the pilot initialed a new contract… with McLaren!

In spring 2020, Covid-19 blocked all competition and Daniel Ricciardo had not yet achieved his two podiums with the Losange. The bitter taste of a disappointing first campaign was strong, much more than the sweet taste of the progress made behind the scenes by the engineers at Viry-Châtillon and enstone. So Cyril Abiteboul is forced to see his dream of “Daniel Ricciardo is world champion material” fade away in his fold.

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Two years have passed and Daniel Ricciardo has once again failed to carry out an ambitious sporting project. Worse still, he went from potential champion to has-been, constantly relegated by the English nugget Lando Norris in McLaren. The victory at Monza in 2021 is only a sham because Daniel Ricciardo does not compare.

At 33, Daniel Ricciardo has moved into the category of drivers whose prospects are diminishing from year to year. Although he denies having a contract for 2023 with McLaren, nothing is assured for the Aussie, especially since his young compatriot Oscar piastri pushes behind, helped by his manager Mark Webber. Under these conditions, a return to the fold, to Alpine, is no longer fiction.

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