{"id":396411,"date":"2024-05-23T03:44:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T03:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396411"},"modified":"2024-05-23T05:05:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T05:05:54","slug":"unbelievable-repeat-that-would-save-ricciardo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396411","title":{"rendered":"'Unbelievable' repeat that would save Ricciardo"},"content":{"rendered":"

To say Daniel Ricciardo<\/a>'s F1<\/a> career hangs in the balance is not an outlandish statement. His future in the sport has been the subject of heavy speculation for much of the season.<\/p>\n

But as much as this line seems to be trotted out before every race, this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix<\/a> could be a turning point in his 2024 season. Actually, it must be.<\/p>\n

Ricciardo has been comprehensively out-performed by young teammate Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> in the first seven races of the season. He is yet to finish in the points on a Sunday.<\/p>\n

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While Red Bull chief supremo Helmut Marko has dismissed speculation Ricciardo could be dumped as "nonsense"<\/a>, such comments in F1 can hold as much weight as a brown bag after a lunchtime deluge.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

The RB team has fellow antipodean Liam Lawson waiting in the wings. Lawson is highly-rated up and down pit lane, and while keeping Ricciardo's seat warm last year, he scored points in Singapore.<\/p>\n

Right now, Lawson can't do any worse than Ricciardo. The Aussie simply has to improve to keep his seat.<\/p>\n

And Monaco could be the place it all begins.<\/p>\n

Ricciardo has always been good on street circuits, but particularly around the streets of the principality. His win there in 2018 was without a doubt the best of his career.<\/p>\n

On paper it looked about as straight-forward as possible \u2013 he was fastest across all three practice sessions, took pole position and led every lap on his way to victory. That in itself is impressive, but the reality is even better.<\/p>\n

\"Race<\/p>\n

Ricciardo suffered an engine problem barely a third of the way into the race that left him about 25 per cent down on power and with only six of eight gears available to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also had the Ferrari of four-time world champion and former teammate Sebastian Vettel breathing down his neck.<\/p>\n

Had Ricciardo suffered such a failure at literally any other race on the F1 calendar, he would have sunk down the order quick as a stone in a pond. He simply would not have had the top speed to put up any kind of resistance.<\/p>\n

But around the tight confines of Monaco, he was able to manage lapped traffic to maintain what buffer back to Vettel he could, and when the Ferrari did get close enough to attack, Ricciardo was able to position his car perfectly to stymie any chance of an overtake.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Simply put, it was a masterclass in defensive driving and winning the race by driving as slowly as possible.<\/p>\n

"I don't know how you did that, Daniel…" his then-race engineer Simon Rennie said as he took the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

It completed a story of redemption. Two years earlier, Ricciardo was on his way to what should have been a crushing victory when he was cruelled by an uncharacteristically Red Bull pit stop blunder.<\/p>\n

As the track dried after a pre-race downpour, Ricciardo was called into the pits to change to slicks. When he arrived though, the team didn't have the dry tyres ready, and Lewis Hamilton swept through to take the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite some supreme efforts, Ricciardo was unable to get past.<\/p>\n

In his five years driving for Red Bull, Ricciardo finished on the Monaco podium four times, and was fifth the other.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

But back to now. It was by putting on another defensive masterclass in the Saturday sprint race in Miami that led to the Aussie's first points of 2024. He qualified a stunning fourth and kept Carlos Sainz at bay in the race to finish there and score five points.<\/p>\n

The RB cars are quick over one lap, but their race pace is still lacking. There is nowhere else on the calendar where such deficiencies can be overcome like they can in Monaco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given how difficult it is to overtake around the famous street circuit, if Ricciardo can string together a strong qualifying performance on Saturday, he will already be well on his way to scoring points on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Then in the race proper, he only has to defend like his F1 career depends on it \u2013 because it does.<\/p>\n

Qualifying begins at midnight Saturday, before the lights go out to start the race at 11pm Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To say Daniel Ricciardo's F1 career hangs in the balance is not an outlandish statement. His future in the sport has been the subject of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":395487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396411"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396416,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396411\/revisions\/396416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/395487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}