A fifth placed finish at Silverstone may not seem like a triumph to some, but for Daniel Ricciardo it was huge after holding off Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to register his very first top-five finish for McLaren.
At 67.0 to win the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix with betting sites in Australia like bet365, it’s unlikely that we’ll see him drive to victory this season, but he’s beginning to find a bit of form.
Max Verstappen remains the favourite to win the Driver’s Championship despite crashing at Silverstone, with the fortunate Lewis Hamilton close behind as second favourite. Leading Australian sportsbooks like bet365 and Unibet have them priced at 1.50 and 2.50 respectively, which suggests it’ll go right down to the wire this year.
While many drivers put some poor performance down to the car or a simple lapse in concentration, Ricciardo has been open and honest in recent weeks to stress how much it’s hurting him being away from home.
“I left last year after the quarantine, I think my flight was June 1 so it’s been over a year now since I’ve been home,” he said in an interview in June.
“Absolutely I am missing home and missing family and friends. So that can certainly get me down. That’s the negative part of not being home for so long. Other drivers, even if they don’t live at home, they’re probably 30 minutes away from home or they’re a quick flight if they’re based in Europe like most are. So, they’re able to see family and friends so much easier.
“But then the positive of that is that it does fuel me and it does motivate me. I’m like, right, if I am making these sacrifices and I am being away from family and friends and missing events and even family is getting older and grandparents and all that, life goes on… So, if I am over here missing important things, which I value a lot, then I am like right, well I better make this right and make it work otherwise it’s all for nothing.”
“So, I use that as fuel, 100%. Even like training the last week, I was home in Monaco and I had a really good week training and honestly a lot of the mental situations I put myself in were these sorts of things and that would push me harder.
“I do like using it for the right reasons, but this year will probably be the first year since I left home back in 2007 when I’ll actually get homesick, I’m pretty aware of that.”
Having the ability to be so honest is a great trait, and it’s arguably helped Ricciardo since he was so open about it all as he romped to fifth place at Silverstone.
But Nico Rosberg was quick to point out a few weeks ago that Ricciardo may struggle mentally if he continued to be outqualified by his teammate Lando Norris. Going from a team where he was so good and dominant to a place where he’s currently the number two looking at this year’s statistics, it takes a lot of mental strength to deal with that.
Rosberg also told Sky F1, “Daniel is out there thinking ‘wow, that was an awesome lap’, like in Monaco, and then looks at the lap time and is eight tenths away from Lando. That’s when it gets really difficult for you mentally as a driver and really not nice. I hope Daniel can find his feet.”
With Norris over 60 points clear of his teammate in the Driver’s Championship, it does put added pressure on the Australian to improve. But with six points in Austria and 10 at Silverstone, it looks as though Daniel Ricciardo is starting to find his feet with 12 races still to go.
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