LONDON, United Kingdom, June 8 – McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo has reminded critics that he has “not forgotten how to drive” as speculation mounts over his future and whether he will be in the team much longer after a terrible start to 2022.
So far in seven races, Ricciardo has only picked up points at his home grand prix in Australia, where he finished sixth. While teammate Lando Norris has comprehensively outperformed Ricciardo and is seventh in the drivers’ standings on 48 points compared to the Aussies 11 points.
Ricciardo’s struggles have been getting lots of comments from critics over his future, with rumours enhanced following recent comments from McLaren boss Zak Brown.
Brown admitted to Sky Sports that despite winning in Italy last year, Ricciardo, was not living up to expectations since joining from Renault at the end of 2020: “Short of Monza and a few races, it’s generally not kind of met his or our expectations, as far as what we were expecting,” Brown said.
Ricciardo, though, has hit back at his detractors, telling crash.net: “The reality is I’ve not forgotten how to drive in six months, I haven’t lost my competitive edge, it’s just kind of a moment in time that I knew I could come out of,” Ricciardo said.
“You are always going to get people saying this and that. It is what it is. It’s up to me in the car to prove them wrong. But no one’s going to get into me more than myself as well, so someone telling me that I need to pull my finger out is not going to change me because if they are telling me to pull my finger out then I’m telling myself much more.”
The 32-year-old Ricciardo said he was used to criticism, saying: “Already in April and May [last year] there were articles like ‘he’s lost it’ but six months earlier in 2020 I was regarded as one of the standout drivers of that season,” he added.
