Former F1 world champion Damon Hill says F1 team bosses will wonder if Daniel Ricciardo is still fast enough before extending his career.
Daniel Ricciardo’s future is in flux after he was kicked out of the McLaren F1 team with 2023 remaining in the final year of his contract.
McLaren has instead opted to give Ricciardo’s Australian rookie Oscar Piastri the chance to make his F1 debut as Lando Norris’ team-mate.
With the driver market changing rapidly, the options for Daniel Ricciardo to remain on the grid next season are running out. Reports suggest Ricciardo could therefore be signed as a reserve driver with the hope of returning to F1 in 2024.
But Damon Hill doubts that the current pace of Daniel Ricciardo, 33, will allow him to maintain the image of a sufficiently strong driver. Daniel Ricciardo’s 1 and 3/4-year-olds at McLaren have regularly outplayed Lando Norris, barring a shock win at the 2021 F1 Italian Grand Prix.
“Danny was such a great character for our sport, bubbly and always smiling, but something went wrong,” Damon Hill told Sky F1.
“Not only in his pace at McLaren, but also in his strategy to get into a competitive car. Something fell through the cracks. He smelled the roses somewhere and came back and went back in front. Hopefully you’ll come
Asked if it would be better for Daniel Ricciardo to retire 2023 altogether or stay with the team as a reserve driver, Hill said: “I think there’s some logic to that. At least in a top team. If you do that, even if you sit around and wait for the right opportunity, you’ll probably get some information that could potentially be useful to another team.”
“But every team, every team manager looking at him is going to be like, ‘Where’s the pace gone?
Category: F1 / Daniel Ricardo / McLaren
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