Ricciardo has not lived up to his expectations at McLaren for a second season running. Because of this, the Australian has been on the wrong end of a lot of exit rumors. However, both McLaren men finishing in the points at the French GP is a massive boost for the team.

A cheerful Honey Badger was full of praise of his teammate who has made a habit of outperforming the Australian. However, his post-race praises were quite evidentially lost in translation. The Australian was speaking to a reporter in Italian and was completely off while trying to compliment Norris.

After a fair few attempts, the reporter pointed out Ricciardo’s error, which left him red-faced. While talking about Norris’ race, Ricciardo said, “Lando, Il stronzo.”

What Ricciardo thought as a compliment, “stronzo” actually roughly translates to s**thead or a**hole in English. To save Ricciardo’s blushes, the Italian TV reporter pointed out his obvious shortcoming in Italian. A shocked Ricciardo asked, “Is it not a good word?” and added, “Okay. Scusa.”

The reporter replied, “It is a bad word, more bad than good.”

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The Honey Badger laughed off the funny incident as he often does. The two McLaren men have gained a reputation for their humor and constant banter with each other. Ricciardo gave the world a prime example of the same ahead of the British GP.

However, despite the banter, there is a sense of maturity and respect as well between the two.

Daniel Ricciardo sings Norris’s praises after the French GP

Double points finish is a tremendous boost for Ricciardo and McLaren equally. However, despite the result, Ricciardo felt he could not match the speed of his teammate and the two Alpines.

He said, “I had a bit of pace early in the stint and tried to get more out of it, but then it fell away a little too quickly so I definitely struggled from mid-stint onwards and didn’t have the pace to run with the Alpines and Lando. I felt like I did the best that I could – but it’s not enough to make me happy.”

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Ricciardo will try to keep improving himself to silence his doubters and points finish is a step in the right direction.