Where has old Monaco specialist Daniel Ricciardo gone? With 13th place in the Principality, the Australian once again fell short of expectations in 2022
For the second year in a row, McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo came up short at the Monaco race weekend, despite the legendary track in the Principality being known as his absolute favourite in the past.
While in the 2016 season he lost what he thought was a certain victory only due to a slip-up by his Red Bull mechanics during a tyre change, he made amends two years later by dominating the entire weekend to claim a well-deserved Monaco victory, despite a serious engine problem.
Last year, however, when he contested the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix for McLaren, he was soundly beaten by teammate Lando Norris. While the Briton even finished on the podium, Ricciardo was only twelfth, but even tougher was that he was even lapped by his teammate.
Again this season, the race in the Principality did not go much better for the Australian. While Norris scored valuable points for the team with sixth place as well as the fastest race lap, Ricciardo could not go beyond 13th place, some 45 seconds behind his team-mate.
He was correspondingly frustrated after the race: “There’s actually not much to say. A lot happened without anything really happening,” he mumbles. “I think the bottom line is that it wasn’t a strong weekend and we weren’t fast enough to attack the other riders. It was just tricky.”
At first, however, Ricciardo saw a great opportunity when the rain shower hit the Côte d’Azur just before the race: “I laughed when I saw those conditions. When you’re on pole, of course you don’t want that, but when you start 14th like I did, you see it as a favourable opportunity. And that’s quite rare in Monaco because normally everything depends on qualifying. “
Ricciardo was overtaken twice on the track
“We tried a few things and tried to stay on the wet tyres as long as possible to save a pit stop and go straight to the slicks,” said Ricciardo. The strategy only worked to a certain extent for the Australian, however, as he was overtaken on the track by Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly, among others, on intermediates.
“It was difficult. I felt like we were at a point of no return. We overdid it a bit, but switching to intermediate for two or three laps wouldn’t have made sense either. So we just sat it out,” explained the McLaren driver.
“We were at a point where we just had to try and hang on and go straight to the slicks. I was able to hold Gasly off for a few more laps, but then I didn’t see him at the pool and I was like, ‘OK, I think he’s in the blind spot next to me.’ But even if he hadn’t got me there, he probably would have passed a few corners later.”
“So I tried to pick my battles,” Ricciardo said. “I just said to myself, ‘If we put the slicks on at the right time, we can maybe gain five, six or seven seconds in a lap.’ That was all I was thinking about. “
Ricciardo: Only had the Hamilton strategy of 2016 in mind
On lap 18, the Australian finally became one of the first drivers to switch to the hard tyres, though he was only able to make up a little ground, which is why he remained in 14th place on a pit-stop-adjusted basis, only benefiting later from Kevin Magnussen’s retirement.
“I had a certain urge to impose that strategy, simply because Lewis had done that to me in 2016 and it had worked for him. That was always in the back of my mind,” Ricciardo explained. “Of course I would like to have a good result soon, but we were far from that this weekend. “
When asked more specifically about the 2016 race, he reminisces: “It’s been so long, but it’s only six years really. It still feels pretty fresh though, but the last two years here have been pretty far away from such results. “
