Ricciardo mentions five undervalued F1 drivers: "He looked like Verstappen"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Daniel Ricciardo has to enjoy himself just like the other drivers in these times of self-isolation. Where his younger colleagues are full of sim racing, the Australian looks back on his Formula 1 career, which is now almost ten seasons long.
Ricciardo will be one of the veterans on the Formula 1 grid in 2020. He was reminded of this when someone told him that in his time in F1 he raced against 62 different drivers. That was reason for him to list a top five of the most undervalued competitors on Twitter.
It's not entirely surprising to read that three of the five names on his list are drivers he raced a lot against in the junior classes, but who never made it to the top in Formula 1 for whatever reason. This is how he calls Marcus Ericsson, Roberto Merhi and for understandable reasons Jules Bianchi.
Merhi looked similar like Verstappen
With Merhi he even dares to make a comparison with Max Verstappen. "He looked a bit like Max in the sense that he could throw the car and had great control over it. He had that speed and lack of fear which made him dare to take risks. It went wrong for him when tyre management became a factor."
Finally, he mentions two drivers whom he looked up to as young drivers. In the first place Vitantonio Liuzzi, the Italian who dominated karting when Ricciardo was a little boy and lastly Jenson Button. The Briton beat teammate Lewis Hamilton in a direct duel in 2011. An achievement that wouldn't be appreciated by many.