Honey Badger Daniel Ricciardo Remembered as “The One Who Beat Sebastian Vettel” Despite Devastating F1 Failures

Daniel Ricciardo joined Red Bull as a regular driver in 2014. That was the season his teammate Sebastian Vettel was coming at the back of a 4 consecutive title-winning run. The Honey Badger may be struggling to find his best form now, however, that was the time he beat the defending champion in the same car.

Daniel Ricciardo signed a 3-year contract with McLaren. However, the deal had to be cut short at the end of 2 years owing to a series of underwhelming performances. While Ricciardo registered a win in 2021 at the Italian GP, he failed to beat his teammate Lando Norris in the overall points tally. In the 2022 season, he once again fell behind his teammate, scoring just 37 points against Norris’ 122.

Nico Rosberg clueless about Daniel Ricciardo’s slump in form

Daniel Ricciardo had his best run in Formula 1 with Red Bull. 7 of his 8 F1 career wins came during his time with the Milton-Keynes-based team. He took the world of F1 by surprise when he accrued more points than Sebastian Vettel in 2014. That is enough to establish how good of a racer he is. Former F1 champion Nico Rosberg finds it difficult to understand why the Australian driver is going through a dry patch.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Any Driven Monday, Nico said, “Difficult to understand also why he was struggling to get that performance out of the car, the performance that we’re used to seeing from him.”

“He is the one who beat Sebastian Vettel in the same car, let’s remember that, over the whole season fair and square back at Red Bull.” 

Rosberg continued, “He is an awesome driver so strange to understand why the last two years with two completely different cars he wasn’t able to deliver, I don’t understand it.”

Read More: “Lando, Where Do You Have Your Hand?”: Norris’ Sneaky Move on Daniel Ricciardo Leaving Fans Suspicious

Ricciardo and Vettel may have raced hard against each other back in the day. They, however, share a nice bond. Ricciardo earlier this year revealed how much he had learned from Seb.

Daniel Ricciardo lauds Sebastian Vettel’s straightforward attitude

Daniel Ricciardo appeared for an interview with Maxim in May this year. He talked on various topics, ranging from Netflix’s Formula 1: Driver to Survive, to his wine brand. The Honey Badger also revealed what he liked about his former teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Ricciardo revealed, “I really enjoyed my year with Vettel in 2014. This was a four-time world champion who I was able to just observe. He had a way of getting what he wanted or getting a point across, which was sometimes intense or robust, but it was respected and taken on.”

“It wasn’t like, “F**k, this guy’s complaining again!” or, “He’s telling us how to do our job!” It was concise, to the point, but it would always end in, Let’s do it together!”

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Do you think Daniel will make a comeback as a regular after a year? Or will F1 teams forget the racing prowess he once possessed?