I don't care what you say... men's feet are just ugly. But drinking champagne from a sweaty, stinking racing boot is gross!
As said quite a number of times already, that was an old tradition in imperial Russia: well, considering the context these days...the historic imperial Russia: at the time of the Czars. Rgds
I would tend to agree, BUT: a. I confess I really do like the guy (or what I see from him: we've not met and probably never will...), so I'm probably less objective with him than with others; since the days of Jack Brabham, I've always been a fan of Australian drivers (don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know; even of Alan Jones, who considered the French incapable of almost anything, and very devious, but he still is an all-time favourite driver of mine). b. I think Daniel is now really against the ropes: either he delivers next year (either he still at McLaren or back at Renault/Alpine) or he will face oblivion; no more excuses would be acceptable, and he is already 33. But I'm sure he knows it, of course: he is no fool. During these two years at McLaren, he destroyed a great part of his credit; there is still some left, but it has to be restaured... Rgds
I think this is far worse than that concerning Ricciardo. He was a truly quick driver before the mclaren move. Something looks like psychologically broken with him which is a very difficult problem to solve. I sincerely don't think he will recover from this..
Press analysis of Ricci — https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-reasons-behind-ricciardos-mclaren-formula-1-struggles/10350459/ The reasons behind Ricciardo’s McLaren Formula 1 struggles Daniel Ricciardo’s pending Formula 1 exit from McLaren is set to end two difficult years for the eight-time grand prix winner. Image Unavailable, Please Login By:Luke Smith Co-author:Roberto Chinchero Aug 8, 2022, 10:02 AM Image Unavailable, Please Login While his sensational Monza victory, McLaren’s first for nearly nine years, was a reminder of his undeniable talent, it will stand as an outlier result from his time at Woking, bar any shock heroics in the second half of the season. Few thought things would end like this. Ricciardo’s arrival for 2021 was seen as a coup for McLaren, snaring the Australian away from Enstone - an act it is now set to repeat with Oscar Piastri. Ricciardo's struggles through last season were put down to acclimatising to a new car philosophy, which were gradually ironed out and led to his Monza victory. Surely it was cured for season two with McLaren. And yet the struggles not only continued, but deepened. After 13 races in 2021, Ricciardo had 56 points on the board and nine points finishes. His haul this year? Just 19 points from five races, three of which came for sixth in the Imola sprint. So why has Ricciardo struggled so much with McLaren’s Formula 1 cars over the past two years? The important thing to bear in mind is that while the 2022 regulations may have heralded a technical overhaul for F1, they did not eradicate many of the characteristics of the McLaren car that made it so tricky to drive last year. The MCL36, just like the MCL35M, excels in high-speed corners but struggles more when it comes to the medium-speed stuff. At the end of last year, McLaren technical director James Key spoke of a desire to attack the weaknesses and “account for them with a blank sheet of paper”, ensuring there were “no legacy built in behaviours in a new car like that.” But Ricciardo ended up encountering the same struggles with the new car. "The regulations make the car feel different, but the DNA of the car is still very similar,” Ricciardo told Autosport in an interview ahead of F1’s summer break, before plans for him to be replaced by Piastri were set into motion. “Some of the things from last year which I struggled with, they are still in this car. It's something I think we are starting to understand better what it is. Because obviously I tried to describe it, but to really understand, is it aero, is it is geometry, like… you know what I mean? We are starting to understand better what it is, and Lando also does complain about it. I think he's just used to it.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36 Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images Norris will hold his hands up and admit he’s in a similar boat with the quirks of this year’s McLaren car. “The car I have now is completely not what I want for my driving style, and very unsuited for me,” he told Autosport in an interview over the Hungary weekend. "It’s not a bad thing, it’s just that’s what it is, and you have to adapt to it. “That’s why I feel like I’ve done a reasonable job this year, adapting to something that is not quite what I want or like.” He added with a laugh that it “blows my mind” he managed to finish on the podium at Imola, given the car’s limitations. It points to the difference between Norris and Ricciardo this year. While Norris has been able to adjust and work around the characteristics of the MCL36, Ricciardo has struggled to do so in the same way. He has always been a driver who thrived off having complete confidence in the car, allowing him to be aggressive and throw it around. The McLarens of the past two years have not given him the chance to do that. Ricciardo said new issues have emerged with the car this year that served as further setbacks. “Some of the, let’s call it struggles or difficulties, are a carry over - and then there might be a few new things where you’re like, damn, OK!” Ricciardo said. “It kind of just comes down to the feel. It’s probably still hard to get a read, I guess, and to really build consistency in a race sometimes. My lap time variation might be quite big, and that’s normally like uncharacteristic. “That kind of highlights where I’ll get caught off or something, I’m like, ‘oh ****, I didn’t expect the car to do that in that corner.’ It’s still just a little bit tricky to read I guess, going on a simple term.” While Norris has been more consistent in races, Ricciardo has tended to tail off more due to these drops in pace. Ricciardo has also struggled more to understand why the car reacts like it does at times: “That’s where it can build some frustration, like, ‘why did I lock up then? I didn’t do anything to provoke that, so why the hell did that just happen!’ Just stuff like that.” The adjustment Norris has made compared to Ricciardo has gone a long way to explaining the gaps between them at points this year. But it has not knocked Ricciardo’s confidence or led to any self-doubt about his ability. “Some days when it's eight-tenths off… me, I don't believe this can be possible, you know?” he said. “Because even you look across the grid, even the best driver on the grid, whoever you say it is, whoever someone says it is, they are not eight-tenths better than the second best. Like, this is a big gap. “There is still a lot I'm trying to learn with the car and understand, not always that easy to figure it out, but I feel we are getting closer.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36, Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522 Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images And there has always been that confidence from Ricciardo things would come good. A repeat his his Monza victory may be a stretch, but he never wavered from saying a breakthrough was not far away. “We obviously tried a lot of things,” he said. “I think this year we’ve understood more and some of that understanding is definitely carried over from last year. I’m still not setting the world on fire, but I’m not saying a win is going to happen in a week, but I feel like it’s going to come. “That’s certainly what keeps me motivated. I can see with what the team around me is doing as well, like, they believe it. They’re not just telling me things that I want to hear. There is some method to the madness, if you will.” But the breakthrough Ricciardo needed did not come quickly enough. As much as McLaren may have said it was committed to getting him up to speed, its patience grew too thin. Piastri’s surprise availability became an opportunity the team felt too good to pass up, even at the expense of an established winner like Ricciardo. That is what needs to be remembered in all of this. Ricciardo is an established winner. All eight of his F1 victories have come in cars that were not the fastest on the grid, proving his ability to wring performance out of his machinery. Sometimes though, the driver/car combination does not gel well - and this has been exactly that. It is not entirely on him this partnership did not work. Wherever Ricciardo ends up next, the goal will be to rediscover his mojo and, to some extent, rebuild his reputation. A car he can click with will be the key to quickly make that happen.
His lack of mesh with the car must be frustrating for him of course. He is a capable driver and not the first to suffer with this. I enjoy his driving and energetic personality!
Ricciardo is gone from a good driver to an average one. Failure to adapt to different cars is a big flaw for a driver. There is even no certainty changing team would cure that.
I don't think he's mentally that weak. His problem is that at Mclaren, it's very much Team Lando (nothing wrong with that, Lando is the guy with a bright future for them and very, very talented, and gets the performance from the car that suits him...so why bother changing the car to suit the other driver?). Add that this years car doesn't suit his driving style at all and all the daily articles written about him since the first race, less and less support from Mclaren (due to aforementioned reason), it's tough. Put him back in a car he likes, he performs, and his whole demeanor will change, as will the results and confidence.
Bas This is two years in a row he’s underperforming with two very different cars. I’m not too optimistic mainly because of this. Norris is a very good driver but not Max or Charles level which is even more worrying..
Being among the quartet of top talents, Norris and Russell could potentially be at the same level as Verstappen or Leclerc. But we have no proof of that, since they never had cars to challenge them.
Very true. I was too focused on Max and Charles. Difficult to predict how they will evolved with the coming years.
Russell is in a Top 3 car and will be able to challenge the front drivers pretty soon. If he finishes the season ahead of Hamilton it will be a decent 1st season for him at Merc.
I don't know that it's "puzzling" in regards to Ric. Now granted I have no clue what goes on behind the scenes, but he seems to act like a guy without a care in the world. He's getting his butt handed to him for almost two seasons now and all he seems to be focused on is his outward facing personality... his goofball persona. You rarely hear him or see him look like someone understanding their position and being committed to righting the ship. He has one race where he did better, but still short of expectation and he's doing interview after interview about how he's turned a corner only to be with the "also rans" the following weekend. To me, he appears more bent on his future after being an F1 driver somehow trying to capitalize on his personality down the road. I'm not sure obviously, but that's what it seems like to me. He seems more concerned about photobombing other drives and teams... constantly interrupting driver interviews to clown around and get more camera time i guess and show everyone how "effervescent" his personality is? I'd like to seem act like a driver who's livelihood is on the line.
Actually I think Norris is very close to Max/Leclerc level. Certainly on par with Russell. The 2021 and 22 cars are very different from each other so it's hard to compare the two. Like Schumacher said as well, the differences between these cars are so big that essentially it's a 2nd first year. The way the Mclaren drives goes completely against Ricciardo's driving style. Ricciardo showed time and time how capable he is in a car he likes. Now we are seeing what he's like in a car he hates and it's not so good. I think the decision was made quite some time ago already for him to be released so why bother giving him anything more than the bare minimum support? The team have fallen out of love with him and he knows and feels that too. His talent hasn't evaporated, it's just become clear that it is limited in the way of adaptability. It happens to 4x WDC's so it can happen to others, too. It's a very rare talent to be able to drive any car quickly and reserved for the top echelon. It doesn't mean other suck, it's just their talent is limited by certain cars. That's what's happening to Ricciardo now and with a team that clearly doesn't want him, I have no doubts he can't wait for this season to be over so he can move on to another team or sport. His bigger problem is that with the current regulations, to get the car to behave as he wants, is limited. It's the same for drivers like Max, Lewis and Michael Schumacher, who want a lot from the front (which is a tricky driving style but if you can manage to keep the car under control, you'll be mind-blowingly fast). It takes time to change the car to this under brand new regulations. Mclaren have no need to do this because Lando can handle the car in it's current state.
...And so do I. I hope that, with a car more suited to him, he can start a "positive spiral" and a flight to the top. Clearly, he wasn't expecting to struggle that much, but I still think he is a gifted and likeable guy (What do I know? "never meet your heroes...") who has been taken aback by what he didn't expect. By the way, as said above by others: there is ALSO - but it might be derailing the thread - a problem to be solved at McLaren, let's not forget it: not only is the car's behavior peculiar, BUT there are almost no results at all this season. Getting Piastri is one thing, but should he not get the right car, this might actually be a waste of a young talent. Mixed perspective here... This situation cuts both ways: for Daniel Ricciardo, but for McLaren also. Rgds
