Renault “Bruised” by Daniel Ricciardo Joining Mclaren in 2021: Martin Brundle

The 2020 F1 season is nearly upon us. With a delayed start to the current season, fans already witnessed some movement in the driver market for 2021. First, Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari announced that they would part ways after 2020. Soon thereafter Carlos Sainz was confirmed by the Scuderia. Following that, Daniel Ricciardo moved to McLaren, replacing the Spaniard.

However, these three drivers still have a whole season left at their current team. While Ferrari may not have a problem sharing car development information with Vettel, the case with the other two is a bit dicey. Although McLaren and Renault confirmed that they wouldn’t withhold any information from Sainz and Ricciardo respectively, F1 commentator Martin Brundle thinks that won’t be the case, especially with Ricciardo.

Brundle thinks that Daniel Ricciardo moving to Renault’s rival wouldn’t have pleased them

Sky Sports interviewed the former F1 driver turned commentator Martin Brundle. Usually, when a driver agrees to sign for a new team for next season, he is kept in the dark about certain topics. Brundle agreed saying, “Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, and Carlos Sainz have got to walk into their garages and start a season when it’s already absolutely known that they are leaving. With all the sensitive data and systems you are quickly persona non grata in these situations.”

Furthermore, he felt that Ricciardo will receive the least amount of information among the three. He said, “Especially for Daniel. He is going to a team with generally a very similar performance level. They’re just going to be increasingly keeping some things away from him. They’ll also be bruised that he thinks McLaren is a better opportunity than Renault.”

Renault’s team principal Cyril Abiteboul had earlier said that they plan to keep things transparent with him (Read: “Work Extremely Normally With Daniel:” Renault F1 Confirm Positive News for Daniel Ricciardo). However, we’ll soon find out if that is really the case.

Nevertheless, expect Ricciardo to give nothing less than 100% for Renault on the track. The Australian feels that he still owes something to the Enstone-based outfit. He would want to leave the Renault with some good memories and possibly a podium finish to cap it off.