F1 News
"Ricciardo had to get used to Renault for a long time, that's a bad sign"
- GPblog.com
IMSA driver Renger van der Zande has spoken out about Daniel Ricciardo. In the Dutch F1 Café oatZiggo Sport the Australian came up for discussion because of his transfer from Renault to McLaren in 2021. According to van der Zande, Ricciardo hasn't left a good impression on Renault so far.
"What really disappointed me when Ricciardo drove at Renault was that he had to get used to the car for a long time". Van der Zande makes the comparison with Fernando Alonso, who just needed a very short time to get used to the car, for the 24H of Daytona. "When Alonso joined us in the Cadillac he only needed three laps to go fast. Max (Verstappen) even needed just one race before he won in the Red Bull."
Sainz can do that better
Not only van der Zande sees that Ricciardo does not have a good adaptability. Jack Plooij also commented that Renault was not satisfied with his set-up qualities. "Ricciardo hasn't contributed that much in his career at all, we hear everywhere through our 'birds'. He is not the kind of driver who adjusts a car."
Plooij therefore suspects that the choice of Ferrari ultimately went for Carlos Sainz. "Sainz has that, he has much more feeling for that". In the end Ricciardo managed to get the spot of Sainz at McLaren. It remains to be seen if he can get used to the car quickly.