“He will regret his decision,” Cyril Abiteboul’s demeaning prediction about Daniel Ricciardo actually turns out to be true in 2022
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Daniel Ricciardo and Cyril Abiteboul
The Japanese GP was a tough race for the McLaren squad to swallow with Lando Norris managing to score a single point while Daniel Ricciardo finished just outside the points in P11. The Aussie had joined the British outfit back in 2021. Sadly the Australian struggled in his first season racing for McLaren while his teammate completely blasted him. Although he managed a win with the team at Monza, that was the best that he could do.
Coming into the 2022 season, it was expected that Daniel Ricciardo would have adapted to the McLaren and could possibly match or be better than teammate Lando Norris. However the tiles did no turn for the Aussie driver. In fact they’re shattered and so did the 8time race winner’s dreams as he suffered yet again this season. For a McLaren driver, getting kicked out of Q1 while his team and is competing for a top 5 spot doesn’t look well.
It was later announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be leaving the team at the end of this season meanwhile another fellow Aussie , Oscar Piastri will be replacing him. This created multitudes of drama as fans were shocked with the news. Daniel has confirmed that he would remain with the team in 2023 prior to a few days. With #3 confirming that he won’t be racing in F1 for the 2023 season, his former boss’s statement has now become relevant.
“I have full confidence that Daniel Ricciardo will regret his decision,” Cyril Abiteboul on Ricciardo’s career choices
Cyril was one of the most popular team bosses in the paddock and was working with Daniel Ricciardo at Renault all throughout 2019 and 2020. In their stint together, the Aussie brought a lot of success to the team scoring multiple podiums and constantly challenging and beating teammate Esteban Ocon. At the start, both the parties had agreed on along term commitment. However Ricciardo announced in 2020 that he will be joining McLaren which in turn seemed to upset Cyril.
He furthermore went on to rant to Netflix about how this decision affected him and went on to say that Daniel Ricciardo will regret it . Fast forward to 2022 and we can see how much the Aussie has suffered and is now considering a reserve driver role. Oh how the mighty have fallen you could say. Daniel wasn’t unhappy at Renault but wanted to join a team that could compete for the title in the future and McLaren was his choice.
The 2022 McLaren doesn’t seem to be as well oiled as the 2021 car and it’s evident that driver performances have been overshadowed due to it. After a good result at Singapore, the battle for third place is still ongoing between them and Alpine ( Formerly known as Renault) in order to get that extra monetary benefit. Meanwhile Daniel Ricciardo will be enjoying his last few races in F1 for a long time now.
Also read : “I have kept my mouth shut long enough,” Alexander Rossi bashes F1 over harsh treatment of Colton Herta
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Varad Joshi
(940 Articles Published)