Sacked F1 team boss shocked by Daniel Ricciardo’s RB downfall
Former Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer confessed that he was clueless regarding Daniel Ricciardo's poor run with RB.
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Daniel Ricciardo (via IMAGO)
Daniel Ricciardo made a surprise F1 comeback with AlphaTauri (now RB) midway through 2023. Unfortunately, the Australian driver was sacked after the Singapore GP this season due to a dismal campaign. Now, former Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer has expressed his disappointment over the Honey Badger’s decline.
Szafnauer recalled that when he took the reigns at Alpine, the Enstone-based team was searching for a driver to replace Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso. The Romanian-American claimed that Pierre Gasly was signed after using Daniel Ricciardo‘s prior Renault stint as reference.
I remember that when I arrived at Alpine we had a vacant seat, then we chose Gasly, and as main references we had Hulkenberg and Daniel.
Otmar Szafnauer told AutoRacer
The former Alpine boss highlighted that engineers within the team always praised Ricciardo’s pace. The Australian driver had even outperformed Nico Hulkenberg at Renault back in 2019. However, Otmar Szafnauer admitted that he was shocked to see how Daniel Ricciardo seemed to lost his pace entirely this year.
I was talking to any engineer and everyone praised Daniel for his speed even towards Hulkenberg, in the end he turned out to be slightly faster than Nico. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to him this year.
Otmar Szafnauer stated
Otmar Szafnauer reveals RB’s decision process over sacking Daniel Ricciardo
Szafnauer revealed that when a team contemplates over potentially replacing a driver like Daniel Ricciardo mid-season, it must first see if the new driver will be able to adapt quickly. The 60-year-old highlighted how Franco Colapinto managed to get up to speed from his first F1 outing at Williams after replacing Logan Sargeant. Otmar Szafnauer admitted that he had not expected the Argentine driver to be so adaptable.
What you do is think as a first point that someone else can go faster than him [Ricciardo], but above all also how long it would take to adapt. I remember that when Williams decided to side Logan Sargeant, I thought that whoever replaced the American would still need 4/5 races to adapt, and instead I was wrong. Colapinto adapted almost instantly.
Otmar Szafnauer noted
Certainly, Formula 1 is a brutal sport with scope for second chances. RB ran out of patience with Daniel Ricciardo and replaced him with Liam Lawson. The Australian driver virtually has no chances of returning to the sport. Although, the 35-year-old can look back at one of the most exciting careers in the past decade.
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Armaan Agarwal
(2308 Articles Published)