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via Getty

via Getty

In the 2021 season, Daniel Ricciardo jumped ship from Renault to join McLaren on a three-year contract. This grabbed the headlines in the paddock and everyone was excited to see the new dynamic at the Woking outfit, between Lando Norris and the fresh face of the team.


Both the Brit and the Aussie have lively personalities and are arguably the most entertaining entities on the grid. They are really close and enjoy pranking each other at every race weekend.

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At the British GP, the space hopper incident between the papaya teammates is fresh in the memory of every F1 fan. To add to that list, the two of them bantered in the driver’s parade following up to the French GP. Norris took to his socials and streamed live his experience of the pre-race show.

During the parade, each driver found himself chauffeured in a vintage car. This is when the 22-year-old took a dig at his partner by saying, “I am live, I am live. You can swear if you want, swear to my viewers. You actually look pretty, the car suits you, I think. It’s around your age range, isn’t it?”

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“Take your shirt off Daniel, ow. You have a lot of fans here” The Briton chuckled.

It was a decent result for both the cars of the British manufacturer as they both finished in the points. Ahead of the McLaren unboxed episode on YouTube, the fans got to see the behind-the-scenes footage through the Brit’s eyes.

Daniel Ricciardo rates his performance at the French GP

The Perth-born racing driver is in the spotlight this season. However, not for a reason he would have wanted. The poor stint of results has put his F1 future in jeopardy and he aims to improve in the rest of the 2022 season.

It was not the perfect weekend for him at Le Castellet. He again struggled to get on top of the MCL36 and finished behind his teammate. He reviewed his performance in round 12 of the championship by allotting himself “Minus 46” out of 10.

He said, “I tried to hold on to Esteban as long as I could. But yeah, in the end, obviously, he got me there in [Turn] 10.”

“The first part of the stint, I felt like I can just stay with him and then when they’re kind of getting a bit more out of the tire or the pace, that’s when I started to drop off and lose the grip that is kind of keeping you there with them.”

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“So yeah, like that tailing off and not being able to then get more out of it is where it’s still… that’s where the race kind of gets away from me.”

“Not really sure yet [of the problem] obviously, we’ll have a look but I don’t feel like I’m aggressive on tires or anything.

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“And you know, there’s a lot of [tyre] management, I’m not really sure why I tailed off more, but that’s where we’ll do our homework.” The Aussie concluded.

Currently, he faces a deficit of 51 points to Norris in the championship. Given that your teammate is your closest rival because of operating in the same machinery, it is a massive gap for the 8-time Grand Prix winner. Do you think Daniel Ricciardo can close this gap in the 10 remaining races?