F1 News
Marko compares Russell's situation with Ricciardo's first Red Bull season
- GPblog.com
Daniel Ricciardo is still not in his element at McLaren. The Australian is constantly driving behind teammate Lando Norris and the points just don't seem to be coming in for the former Red Bull Racing driver. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko finds it sad to see Ricciardo having so many problems.
Russell compared to Ricciardo
Marko says that when Mercedes can compete for wins again Lewis Hamilton will automatically return to the top of Formula 1. Currently, it is his new teammate George Russell who is performing better than Hamilton on paper. "Because a lot of things are against him, there is also a lot of bad luck. Just like Ricciardo had at Red Bull, when everything was against [Sebastian] Vettel," Marko says of Ricciardo's situation at OE24.
When Ricciardo made the switch from Toro Rosso to Red Bull in 2014, he quickly became the Austrian team's tastemaker. Vettel, who was just coming off a run of four consecutive world titles, failed to win a race that year. Ricciardo, on the other hand, won three, making him the only driver besides the Mercedes drivers to win races that year.
Ricciardo 'floundering' at McLaren
Now it is Ricciardo himself who is in something of a Vettel situation at his current team McLaren. Norris is driving the Aussie all the way in 2022. McLaren CEO Zak Brown already seems to be thinking about an early departure for Ricciardo. "Sad to see how Daniel is floundering at the moment," Marko says of this.
While Norris is in a neat seventh place in the drivers' standings with 48 points, Ricciardo currently has to make do with eleventh position. The Aussie has only amassed eleven points after a sixth place in Australia and a sixth place in the Imola sprint race.