Daniel Ricciardo wants Renault to go beyond team boss Cyril Abiteboul simply saying “hi” to him at the track over the weekend.
In a shocking announcement, Daniel Ricciardo confirmed in August of 2018 that he would be leaving Red Bull Racing after five seasons competing for the team and several additional seasons within the organization. He signed a two-year contract to begin driving for Renault in the 2019 Formula 1 season.
While engine reliability issues plagued Ricciardo’s final couple of seasons at Red Bull Racing and a move away from the team was justifiable despite the fact that he won races in four of his five seasons there, especially given the rise of then teammate Max Verstappen as their clear-cut number one driver, it was not believed that Ricciardo would have nearly as much success at Renault, at least not right away.
With that being said, hopes were high for the French marque heading into 2019.
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Renault were coming off of a 2018 season in which they won the “best of the rest” constructor championship and the “best of the rest” driver championship with Nico Hulkenberg, Ricciardo’s new teammate.
Suffice it to say that things didn’t go as planned.
Renault had to settle for a fifth place finish in the constructor standings behind McLaren, now their lone customer team after losing Red Bull Racing to Honda, and it was a distant fifth; the Woking-based team dominated the “best of the rest” standings, and they placed the “best of the rest” driver as well with Carlos Sainz Jr.
To rub even more salt in the wound, Sainz is the driver who got the boot at Renault with the 30-year-old Australian joining the team.
Ricciardo, meanwhile, had to settle for a ninth place finish in the driver standings. He did finish ahead of McLaren rookie Lando Norris, but by only five points (54 to 49) in a season that was littered with reliability issues for the 20-year-old Briton.
His average finish was 12.14, and he recorded eight top 10 finishes in 21 starts, including a season-high fourth place finish in the Italian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo believes that a key to improvement goes beyond developing the car and instead developing relationships within the team, an aspect of the 2019 season that he feels was neglected with everybody being so busy throughout race weekends to the point where a “hi” would be all he got from team managing director Cyril Abiteboul.
It’s quite clear that he wants a bit more than that moving forward.
Here is what Ricciardo had to say about the matter, according to Crash.
"“For next year I’ve got some ideas of things I can do more or better. I feel like I integrated myself into the team well this year, but I look back and am like I can do more.“I want to have a bit more presence before the season starts, before testing, but also have some ideas which of things we can do together as a team to get us into the season – not just technically, but as a team unit I want to get to Barcelona feeling like we got some momentum before the season even starts.“Even some team morale stuff, call it team building and some activities. More importantly to spend time with the team, even away from the track. At the track even like with Cyril sometimes it is ‘hi’ and that is all you get over the weekend because we are busy. So you don’t always get good quality time at the circuit.“I feel that to take this relationship to the next level, getting time away from the track is good. Just having that feeling, even for the guys, if they know each other a bit more, they will want to work a little bit harder for each other and make some good stuff happen.”"
How will Renault and Daniel Ricciardo fare in what is slated to be their second year together in the 2020 Formula 1 season with Esteban Ocon now set to compete for the team? The 22-race season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 15 at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Albert Park, Australia with the Australian Grand Prix.