Formula 1: Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault move resembles blockbuster NBA deal

Daniel Ricciardo signing a two-year contract with Renault starting in the 2019 Formula 1 season resembles a recent blockbuster NBA deal.

When Josef Newgarden left Ed Carpenter Racing at the end of the 2016 IndyCar season to join Team Penske, the team that fielded all three of the drivers who finished ahead of him in the 2016 championship standings, there was no question that his move resembled the blockbuster NBA move a few months earlier involving Kevin Durant.

After Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder blew a 3-1 lead to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference Finals, Durant left Oklahoma City and signing with Golden State.

Daniel Ricciardo, who currently drives for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and has done so since the 2014 season, shockingly signed a two-year contract to drive for Renault Sport as the replacement for Carlos Sainz Jr. beginning in the 2019 Formula 1 season, and like Newgarden’s move, the move of the 29-year-old Australian also closely resembles a recent move of a former NBA MVP.

With Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo knows what he is getting, as he has gotten it in each of the last five seasons. He is getting a car capable of winning races, multiple races per season, but not quite capable of contending for the championship. He has earned seven victories since the start of the 2014 season, including two through the first 12 races of this season, and he has finished in third place in the driver standings twice (2014 and 2016 seasons).

With the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James knew what he was getting. Since returning to the team in the 2014-2015 NBA season, James reached the NBA Finals in four consecutive seasons. But even though the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA championship, there is no doubt that they were overmatched by the Warriors, who have also reached the NBA Finals in teach of the last four seasons, every single season.

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Had Ricciardo opted to stay with Red Bull Racing next season, he likely would have experienced the same thing he has experienced over the last several seasons: a car capable of winning a few races per season, but not a championship.

Had James opted to stay with the Cavaliers next season, he likely would have experienced the same thing he has experienced over the last several seasons: a team capable of winning the Eastern Conference yet only capable of being demolished by the Warriors in the NBA Finals.

But instead of signing with one of the top two Formula 1 teams, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and Scuderia Ferrari, like many people expected to, Ricciardo signed with the team considered the “best of the rest” behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing — Renault. The French team have not won a race since the 2006 season.

Ricciardo likely will not have what it takes to finish more than a handful of races in the top five or six next season or in the 2020 season, but his gamble to help develop the team into a regular contender perhaps by the 2021 season when the new engine regulations kick in has been likened to the gamble made by Lewis Hamilton when he left McLaren at the end of the 2012 season to join a struggling Mercedes team starting in the 2013 season.

Hamilton has won three championships since then and appears to be on his way to winning his fourth in the last five seasons driving for the Silver Arrows.

Instead of signing with the Warriors or another top-tier championship contender such as the Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors or San Antonio Spurs, James opted to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. They have not had a winning record since they went 45-37 in the 2012-2013 season, and their 35-47 record this past season is actually by far their best since then.

James likely will not have what it takes to win the NBA championship next season. In fact, given how stacked the Western Conference is, it isn’t hard at all to imagine him failing to make it to the NBA Finals for the first time since the 2010 season.

But James’s gamble to go to a lesser team and try to build them into a championship contender while facing the Western Conference head-on could pay off with multiple championships down the road even if he doesn’t make the NBA Finals for the first time in nine years next year. Teams don’t stay great forever, not even the Warriors.

Now in the Western Conference, James, who is doing things that NBA players simply should not be doing at his age, is in a position to capitalize whenever the Warriors’ reign ends — even if it doesn’t end in the next two or three seasons — as he begins to develop the Lakers into an NBA Finals-ready team, just like Ricciardo will try to do with Renault as far as the Formula 1 driver and constructor championships are concerned.

The bottom line? The underlying concepts revolving around the desire to win are the same in every sport. No one wants to settle for second or third place on a consistent basis even when that means they are better than almost everyone out there.

Sometimes risks need to be taken to try to attain that little something extra to be the best. Whether or not those risks pay off varies from situation to situation within each sport. But it’s safe to say that Daniel Ricciardo is in good company on many levels moving forward even if he doesn’t win races as a Renault driver right away.