The Ricciardo/Renault split

Many people view Formula One as a sport where boys drive fast cars in circles for an hour and a half, before drowning each other in champagne. Where the only parts to watch are when cars disintegrate in high-speed crashes, and a driver magically walks away. They mistakenly believe the drama and stories are only told on tarmac every two weeks.

But no, the great tales of F1 are written over many years. Hero's journeys, comeback stories, and those who flew too close to the sun. Daniel Ricciardo is writing his tale now, and where it goes next after his Renault powered chapters are over is as thrilling as any 90-minute race on a Sunday.

Ever since Ricciardo made it to the front of the grid in 2014, he has had a Renault engine powering him. He began his F1 career at the short-lived HRT Team for half a year in 2011, before Toro Rosso provided training wheels for 2012 & 2013. These early days had the Australian paying his dues and learning his craft out of the spotlight lower down the grid. But when compatriot Aussie, Mark Webber, retired from the sport at the parent team, Red Bull, Ricciardo was the obvious replacement. His profile rocketed from the moment he raced at the front.

While 2014 marked the rise of Ricciardo’s notoriety in the public eye, it also heralded the beginning Renaults decline. The Renault partnership with Red Bull was fruitful, bringing in four titles thanks to Ricciardo’s new teammate, the gifted Sebastian Vettel. In the nine years preceding Ricciardo’s promotion, a Renault engine had won the championship six times. Since Ricciardo joined, they’ve won zero though this downturn had as much to do with Mercedes nailing the new engine regulations as much as it was Renault falling behind.

It must be frustrating for Ricciardo. In that 2014 season, he arguably performed at his strongest. No driver outside the Mercedes team could win the title, and Daniel partnered a man that Red Bull had created their team around. The Australian didn’t just outscore world-champion Vettel, he completely outclassed him. Three victories vs. zero, eight podiums vs. four, 238 points vs. 167. What if Webber had retired one year earlier? Would Ricciardo have outscored the man who finished first in 2013? Would he be the first Australian since Alan Jones in 1980 to be a World Drivers Champion?

Over the following years, the performances at Red Bull made it clear that Daniel Ricciardo was one of the hottest tickets in F1. Fast, young, amazingly confident when overtaking, and immensely marketable. It truly looked as though Ricciardo had the world at his feet. He was regularly linked with moves amongst the top teams, particularly with Ferrari, thanks to his Italian heritage. There was just one little problem; Mercedes continued to prevent getting anywhere near winning a title by out-developing Renault, and as the years ticked by, so to were his opportunities of clinching one.

The other top drivers of Ricciardo’s age group, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, and Sebastian Vettel, all won at least one championship in their 20’s. Though being likened with champions by critics would be flattering, a good reputation doesn’t put a name in the history books. Ricciardo needed more at a time when Renault was less and less to Red Bull.

In 2016 Ricciardo again finished third and best outside the 2 Mercs with zero retirements. In 2017 however, he failed to finish in seven races and that DNF tally increased to eight in 2018. Not all of these were engine issues, but with his new partner at Red Bull, Max Verstappen, also struggling with reliability, something was amiss.

With his contract up at the end of the year, speculation followed Ricciardo everywhere in early 2018. With other top drivers locked in multi-year agreements, Daniel held all the cards for the drivers market. With Red Bull and engine suppliers Renault pointing fingers at each other for their performance problems, and young Verstappen being the new star driver at Red Bull, a departure was inevitable. Ricciardo joining Ferrari seemed more certain by the day. But Ricciardo didn’t account for one thing – the rise of Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari Academy driver impressed in his rookie season, and the Scuderia signed him instead, leaving Ricciardo with no top options as Mercedes stuck with Valtteri Bottas. Ricciardo hesitated for too long.

And so the Renault F1 team was the surprising landing for the Western Australian. The team must’ve shown Ricciardo something to indicate that their engines had promise, and it was Red Bull, not Renault, to blame for the problems he had. Senior Red Bull advisor, Dr. Helmut Marko, suggested Renault misled Ricciardo with data for how their performance trajectory was improving. Sadly for the Aussie, if 2019 was anything to go by, Marko was right.

Ricciardo brought both high expectations and the media spotlight with him when he joined Renault. After they climbed from 9th to 6th to 4th in the Constructors’ championship over three seasons, solidifying 4th and possibly even chasing 3rd seemed the only direction to go. But Renault didn’t meet expectations in 2019, and thanks to the attention Ricciardo brought with him, the problems were scrutinized even more than ever before.

Early in the season, Ricciardo was making uncharacteristic mistakes. Outbraking himself, making contact with others, reversing into cars. The issue wasn’t the driver; it was the driver’s confidence in his car. Simply put, Ricciardo was accustomed to a top chassis and aero package, and the 2019 Renault was lacking. For the first time since their return as a constructor four years earlier, Renault had a race-winning driver. And for the first year since Ricciardo drove a Renault engine in 2014, he didn’t visit the podium.

And so, just eighteen months after he joined, Ricciardo signed for McLaren. Had it been Mercedes or Ferrari, things wouldn’t look so dire for the French outfit, but this move was a very public insult. Renault had powered three teams in 2019, themselves, Red Bull, and McLaren. The Renault F1 Team finished last of the trio. Ricciardo knows from pre-season testing what the team is capable of this year, and he’s opted to leave in favor of their nearest rivals.

McLaren enjoyed their best season since 2012 last year. In 2021 the strong management team their restructuring has installed will be coupled with the dominant engines in the sport, Mercedes. Ricciardo can’t change the past where he might wish he stayed put at Red Bull or jumped for Ferrari sooner, but he can dream big at what might be at McLaren with the regulation shake-up set for 2022. They look to have found direction and confidence while Renault is lost at sea.

How Ricciardo’s journey will end is unclear, but, like many, I am hoping for a real championship challenge at some point. Maybe, just maybe, he can hit all the story archetypes in his career? The journey as he climbed the ranks from HRT, then to Toro Rosso, before beating Vettel at Red Bull. Flying too close to the sun when he briefly was the hottest bachelor in the sport before plummetting down, down, down to Renault. Then becoming the comeback king, saying goodbye to life in the doldrums, and coming back fighting with a historic team staging a revival of their own. Only time will tell, but Daniel’s tale could yet end up being an all-time classic.

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