Daniel Ricciardo’s Writing on the Wall Manifests Freaky Reality at French GP

Daniel Ricciardo may not be having the best of seasons, but he certainly seems to have the experience to anticipate things happening in front of him. Ahead of the French Grand Prix, he rightly predicted the start and his chances of overtaking the drivers ahead of him.

He finished P11 during yesterday’s qualifying session, but started P9 because of the grid penalties incurred by Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen. In the pre-race interview, Riccardo forecasted he will jump up the order to P7 in the early laps.

Asked about the fuel in his MCL-36, he said, “Hopefully good. We get a couple of freebies with Sainz and Magnussen. So I’ll be 9th and then Yuki, he’s not good at starting, so I’ll be 8th. Alonso is either great or bad, so I’ll probably be 7th and then we will see from there. “

What followed was exactly that. Alonso started the race in an incredible fashion as he moved into the top 5 and Ricciardo was already citing his teammate Lando Norris from behind, who lost his P5 place to George Russell and was overtaken by Alonso.

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Meanwhile, Tsunoda collided with Esteban Ocon and dropped to the back of the grid in the first lap. Ocon, however, received a 5 second penalty. But like Ricciardo predicted, the Japanese did not start the race well and ultimately retired. The Aussie only finished P9 in the end and secured his 4th points finish of the season.

McLaren Team Principal opens up on the future of Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo’s future is in doubt after a terrible start to the season. However, he seems to be getting his confidence back in the recent races. Although Norris is still outperforming him, the 33-year-old has improved and the French GP performance showed it.

He was closer to his teammate as both the McLarens were P7 and P8. Towards the end, however, Ocon overtook Ricciardo to finish P8. Ahead of the race Andreas Seidl, the McLaren team principal, showed confidence in him and confirmed that his future is stable.

He stated, “He’s committed and we’re committed from our side. We just need to keep working hard together in order to find those last percentages that are missing from time to time at the moment and that’s what we’re spending all our energy on.”

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The Australian is gaining a bit of momentum in the last few weeks. With just 10 races to go, he will hope to secure his future with McLaren despite the rumors. Do you think Ricciardo will retain his seat?