Permane on how Ricciardo's huge experience worked against him: 'Using it to overthink'
F1 News
Daniel Ricciardo's exit from F1, while emotional, was certainly not a surprise. While the Australian was able to hold his own against teammate Yuki Tsunoda in some races, in most, his grey performances would give little reason for hope in him coming back into his own after his McLaren stint debacle. Alan Permane, Racing Bulls' Racing Director, speaks about Ricciardo's inconsistency and the potential mental woe that lead to his eventual Formula 1 exit.
Was Ricciardo's problem mental?
The reason Ricciardo came back to Red Bull was clear: to substitue Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing. However there were multiple questions surrounding the 8 time Grand Prix winner, which seemed to materialise during his 2023 AlphaTauri return, and his 2024 VCARB spell. Speaking to Autosport, Permane delves into the reason behind Ricciardo's inability to showcase the talent he once showed earlier in his career, in the VCARB01, Racing Bulls' last season's contender, in particular.
"I don’t know and he doesn’t either. We sat down and talked, tried to figure it out. I was certainly worried that he was overthinking things – he was concerned about the tyres, that they couldn’t cope with the speed he would be asking of them," said Permane, adding later what he believed to be the reason behind the mental struggle, using teammate Tusnoda as a benchmark. "It felt like he was using his huge experience to second-guess things that potentially weren’t correct, because Yuki wasn’t and he was driving as quick as he could and it was working."
Ricciardo's inconsistency, "a bit of a mistery"
During the early stages of the Miami Grand Prix weekend, however, with Ricciardo's stellar Sprint qualifying and Sprint race performances, the team sighed in relief thinking the Australian had found his way back to his old for, with Permane looking back on what he thought of Ricciardo's performances at the time: 'Ahh, it's all clicked.' "That was the Daniel I knew at Renault."
But, just a few hours later, the pace and the confidence were nowhere again. "You do that in the sprint on Saturday morning, then you go for [grand prix] qualifying in the afternoon and he’s 18th. It was a bit of a mystery, honestly," concluded the Racing Bulls Racing Director.
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