Hahaha! Shame! He had a pretty good start and first lap, but then it fell apart.
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Heās had mediocre qualifying and poor race pace pretty much all year. When Danny Ric was still in the car, you had two drivers capable of pushing for wins. Ricciardo was capable of matching or beating Max in the same equipment. That is clearly not the case anymore.
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Yeah, I had a think about this after I posted, and came to the same conclusion. Must suck a lot.
McLaren dicing against a Merc was epic 
Yes indeed. It gave us a better race.
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Do you think Ricciardo made a mistake leaving? I know he is aware of them not competing in the first season or 2, but what does it do to his confidence levels?
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With the amount of money he is making I donāt think he cares all that much. He is doing better than Hulkenberg so he must be happy about that. He initially struggled in the Renault but now he seems to be quite a bit quicker than Hulkenberg.
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I know you didnāt ask me the question but Iām going to lay my egg in anycase. I donāt think Ricciardo made a mistake in leaving RBR. He was driving in the shadow of Max. He was treated like a second driver, where he has the potential and capabilities of being first driver, or at the very least equals. RBR is a difficult place to race in. They want big personality drivers, and Ric Bobby is one. But as could be seen clearly from the weekend, Max has an orange army of fans behind him. Plus Max is a future WDC. Daniel made the right move to get out of that relationship while it was still semi-amicable.
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I was out of F1 for a long time, and the Netflix documentary (forgot the name now) really pulled me back in. I missed most of the fun between DR and MV, but it was clear that as great a driver as Ricciardo was, he was not getting the same attention as the young blood.
Plus, it made for GREAT tv that he switched seats to go to the team that had the most behind the scenes tussles with RBR. Wonder if Netflix paid them to spice things up? 
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It was that documentary that got me into F1 racing too. They did a great job.
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I donāt think Danny himself could answer that conclusively at this point. It all depends on whether Renault help him to finally achieve his dream, which is becoming world champion.
When DR first joined Red Bull, many thought he had the makings of a champion. Unfortunately, his move to Red Bull (which must have seemed like a dream given that Seb had just won 4 titles in a row) coincided with the start of the turbo hybrid era and Mercedes dominance. Still, he beat Seb fair and square in their first season together, and was the only driver other than a Merc to win a race that year.
So from his perspective, he moved to Red Bull with every reason to expect a shot at the title. Instead, he was scrapping for podiums and the odd win between a raft of mechanical issues (14 retirements in two years from 2017-18). Then there was also the growing impression that RB favoured Max as their future star, as Hammer mentioned.
So yeah, I think he did what he felt was best for his career and his championship hopes. Clearly a Merc or Ferrari seat would have been preferable, but there werenāt any available. Renault had the appearance of a team on the up, with talk of closing the gap to the top three and challenging for titles within the next two to three years. Unfortunately for Danny, that hasnāt happened so far this year; Renault are well behind their own targets and have been beaten by their own customer team so far. If things donāt improve soon, he may be caught in a downward spiral, sadly. Time will tellā¦
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Pictures say a thousand words.
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I do feel bad for them. The sad thing is he would have been passed by Turn 4 if not a corner or two later. I still say Ferrari should have kept him out a few laps longer. I didnt see him struggle with pace during that first stint
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The sympathy from Valtteriās side is clear and genuine. He knows first-hand how important it is to get that first win under your belt; itās a massive confidence booster. I genuinely believe that Leclerc will beat Vettel over the course of this season; he just has to keep his head down and keep driving the way he is.
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For those who enjoy some overtaking, here is a choice selection for you. All of Sainzās passes from Austria. Super impressive stuff!
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Thanks I was hoping to see more of this
Sainz was impressive.
And LeClerc is going to pass Vettel by soon enough - he is just consistently better
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Youāre welcome. Some McLaren fans resorted to making their own highlights package, since the Sky F1 director canāt be bothered to show anything other than the leading cars and / or the British drivers. Pretty much nothing of Sainzās charge through the field was shown on TV, from what I gather.
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That is why I REALLY hate Sky F1 they are terrible
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This year really haas been something of a disaster for them so far.
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Another tasty tidbit in our ongoing Ricciardo discussion.
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Yup, would be interesting to see the honey badger in Rosso Corsa, and Iām positive heāll jump ship if that opportunity rolls around. One of two things will happen though, heāll either become a championship contender or heās going to suffer with having a seriously competitive podium reaching team mate
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