Kicked to the Curb, Daniel Ricciardo Becomes a “Big Question Mark” After 4 Year Struggle – Advised to Take This Helping Hand

Former F1 Champion of 1996, Damon Hill has thoughts on Daniel Ricciardo’s graph as a driver and believes he should consider taking up the role of the reserve driver. This way he can continue to stay in a good team. Although, the question that arises is: Will Daniel Ricciardo really go off the grid for the next season?

The eight-time Grand Prix winner, Daniel Ricciardo is departing from McLaren by the end of the year as his performance hasn’t been up to the mark. His current campaign may be his last for the foreseeable future. But amid all this, there are talks that link him to Mercedes in the capacity of their reserve driver.

In a conversation with SkyF1, Damon Hill, about the Australian taking up the 3rd seat on a team, said, “I think there is some logic to that.”

He continued, “If you’re at least with a top team, even if you’re in the wings and waiting for the right opportunity, you will have information that is useful to another team perhaps, potentially.”

“But every team manager would be looking at him and everyone, every team, will be looking at him and asking ‘where’s the pace gone? Is it coming back?’ And that’s the big question mark. We don’t know.” 

Hill concluded, by saying, “Something fell through the cracks there and let’s hope he comes up smelling of roses somewhere and we see him back at the front.”  

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With Daniel Ricciardo parting ways with McLaren, the seat at the Papaya team is not with fellow Australian Oscar Piastri. However, with the Silly season heating up, which all drivers are still without a seat for next year?

Undecided Driver Seats for F1

With the season almost coming to an end, there are still teams with undecided driver lineups for 2023. Uncertainty looms over current drivers as teams like AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Haas, and Williams are possibly considering new driver pairings.

Haas might be letting go of Mick Schumacher despite his progress this season. AlphaTauri, on the other hand, has been in discussion with Nyck de Vries for stepping in, for the upcoming season as Pierre Gasly might be eying a move out.

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With the 2023 season still being a little distant, we’ve all got our thinking caps on. Looks like we’d have to sit back and see how this eventually plays out.