F1‘s Netflix superstar Daniel Ricciardo is used to being in the spotlight — even when it means going from flavor of the month to being a driver who, by his own admission, might have people swearing in frustration at their TV screens. Ricciardo’s slow start to the season has been a major talking point across the first five races.
The popular Australian has been comfortably out-performed by RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda so far and has seen the narrative around his F1 comeback shift from whether he will finally rejoin Red Bull in 2025 to whether he will even keep a seat with the company’s second team beyond this year.
Speaking to ESPN, Ricciardo was candid about how things have been so far this year.
“I’m sure a lot of people, my fans, F1 fans, whoever, have been saying ‘f—ing hell Daniel, pull your finger out, what the f— are you doing?’ That’s just part of this whole thing,” he said. “I’m sure for a lot of them it comes out of a place of them caring and wanting me to do good. And then for some they just have a negative opinion they won’t change.
“I tend not to read stuff about me. I’m generally not a big reader, but inevitably you come across stuff. But it’s one of those things. I perform at a few races and all of a sudden it’s ‘Daniel’s back’ or ‘Daniel’s in contention for this, or that.'”
Seats on F1’s grid of 20 drivers can be hard to come by — this year’s line-up remained unchanged from last year — and Ricciardo’s situation has been magnified with Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson waiting in the wings. Another driver unsure of his next step is Carlos Sainz, who claimed an impressive win at last month’s Australian Grand Prix two weeks after appendicitis surgery.
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Ricciardo used that example — and Sainz’s performances relative to out-of-form Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc — to highlight how fickle opinions can be in and around the world of F1.
“[Carlos] did great in Melbourne, coming back after the surgery, winning the race — amazing win, he did frickin’ awesome. But it’s one win and suddenly people can be like ‘oh he’s the highest rated driver on the grid’ or whatever…. then if Charles wipes the floor with him for a few races those same people would be ‘oh, it was just a one-off,…
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