The Australian parted ways with McLaren after the recent Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after two difficult seasons in Formula 1 as a McLaren driver.
Although there was an important highlight, Ricciardo’s victory at Monza in 2021, he was largely overtaken by teammate Lando Norris.
This ultimately led to the early termination of what was to be a three-year contract when McLaren decided to replace him with fellow Australian Oscar Piastri for 2023.
Ricciardo opened up about his struggles at McLaren over the past two years on the latest episode of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s In the Fast Lane podcast.
He admitted that overanalyzing his lack of pace became a problem and ultimately took him away from his natural riding style.
“It’s something I’ve definitely thought about,” he said.
“I feel like now that the season is over, I’ve already slowly let it go. But I’m sure I’ll think about it again over time, because it’s a bit…I don’t want to let’s say a mystery, but the kind of ongoing struggles I had were, at least to me, very foreign.
“We all have our bad races, but to have the amount I did, and the level it was sometimes, like a second per lap down, I would be scratching my head.
“I think already last year, during the summer holidays, it occurred to me that I was driving very consciously. It was no longer natural. I was a step behind.
“That’s when I was like, ‘I think we’re trying to do too much’.
“One thing I keep thinking about is my first ever qualification with McLaren. I overtook Lando.
“I still didn’t really know the car. I don’t know how many times I overqualified it over the two years, but it wasn’t a lot.
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“To have done it when I was probably driving more by feel and instinct and lack of knowledge about the car, that’s when I was probably better off.
“It’s not a knock on anyone or anything. It’s more like, okay, did we over-analyze our bad weekends and then get caught up in a way where it was like, ‘we have to start driving like this or tuning the car like this’?
“Of course at some point we would have gone a little too deep and a little too lost.”
Ricciardo didn’t blame his lack of success entirely on the analysis level, candidly admitting that the car revealed some of its weaknesses.
“If we hadn’t gone so deep, would I have killed him? I still don’t believe I would have killed him in that car,” he said.
“It definitely exposed some of my weaknesses. I have to accept that.
“But I think we’ve probably underperformed by sometimes burying ourselves too deeply in it all. And that’s a reality. Especially now.
“Race weekends are so busy, it’s so packed. You only have a certain amount of energy – mental, physical, whatever.
“If you’re using a little more mental energy trying to over-analyze, by the time you get in the car, you’re probably already a little fried.”
The Australian parted ways with McLaren after the recent Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after two difficult seasons in Formula 1 as a McLaren driver.
Although there was an important highlight, Ricciardo’s victory at Monza in 2021, he was largely overtaken by teammate Lando Norris.
This ultimately led to the early termination of what was to be a three-year contract when McLaren decided to replace him with fellow Australian Oscar Piastri for 2023.
Ricciardo opened up about his struggles at McLaren over the past two years on the latest episode of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s In the Fast Lane podcast.
He admitted that overanalyzing his lack of pace became a problem and ultimately took him away from his natural riding style.
“It’s something I’ve definitely thought about,” he said.
“I feel like now that the season is over, I’ve already slowly let it go. But I’m sure I’ll think about it again over time, because it’s a bit…I don’t want to let’s say a mystery, but the kind of ongoing struggles I had were, at least to me, very foreign.
“We all have our bad races, but to have the amount I did, and the level it was sometimes, like a second per lap down, I would be scratching my head.
“I think already last year, during the summer holidays, it occurred to me that I was driving very consciously. It was no longer natural. I was a step behind.
“That’s when I was like, ‘I think we’re trying to do too much’.
“One thing I keep thinking about is my first ever qualification with McLaren. I overtook Lando.
“I still didn’t really know the car. I don’t know how many times I overqualified it over the two years, but it wasn’t a lot.
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL36
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“To have done it when I was probably driving more by feel and instinct and lack of knowledge about the car, that’s when I was probably better off.
“It’s not a knock on anyone or anything. It’s more like, okay, did we over-analyze our bad weekends and then get caught up in a way where it was like, ‘we have to start driving like this or tuning the car like this’?
“Of course at some point we would have gone a little too deep and a little too lost.”
Ricciardo didn’t blame his lack of success entirely on the analysis level, candidly admitting that the car revealed some of its weaknesses.
“If we hadn’t gone so deep, would I have killed him? I still don’t believe I would have killed him in that car,” he said.
“It definitely exposed some of my weaknesses. I have to accept that.
“But I think we’ve probably underperformed by sometimes burying ourselves too deeply in it all. And that’s a reality. Especially now.
“Race weekends are so busy, it’s so packed. You only have a certain amount of energy – mental, physical, whatever.
“If you’re using a little more mental energy trying to over-analyze, by the time you get in the car, you’re probably already a little fried.”