The departure of Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull in 2018 was criticized by former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle, who believes it was an emotional and flawed decision. During the last weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix, Ricciardo and Jacques Villeneuve got into a heated argument, with the 1997 champion questioning Ricciardo’s place on the F1 grid. Despite qualifying in fifth place in Montreal, Ricciardo responded to Villeneuve’s comments by questioning if he had been hit on the head, suggesting that he tends to talk nonsense. Villeneuve dismissed Ricciardo’s remarks as childish and refused to retract his previous statements, even though Ricciardo finished eighth in the race.
Brundle seems to agree with Villeneuve’s doubts about Ricciardo’s abilities and believes that his F1 career started to decline when he left Red Bull. In his column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle expressed his respect for all F1 drivers, including Ricciardo and Villeneuve, acknowledging the difficulty of driving such powerful cars under intense scrutiny. However, Brundle expressed his disappointment with Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull at the end of 2018, despite his previous successes in the sport. Brundle believes that Ricciardo’s results have not been as impressive since he left Red Bull.
After leaving Renault two seasons after his adventure with the team, Ricciardo joined McLaren, where he struggled to adapt and was outperformed by his teammate Lando Norris over two seasons. Although his contract with McLaren was terminated early, Ricciardo managed to secure a place in Red Bull’s B team last season. However, he has not been able to consistently perform at his previous level and is currently trailing behind his less experienced teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, by 10 points.
Despite his difficulties, Ricciardo still has ambitions to return to Red Bull’s main team. Brundle believes that Ricciardo’s decision to leave the team was emotional and flawed, and that he should have embraced the challenge of competing alongside Max Verstappen in the best car. According to Brundle, this would have pushed Ricciardo to elevate his game even further. Brundle suggests that something in Ricciardo’s mentality or approach is holding him back, resulting in missed opportunities and a decline in his performance.
