WATCH: Daniel Ricciardo Gives His F1 Race Engineer a Tight Hug Following the Heart-Breaking DNF at Jeddah

Daniel Ricciardo’s journey with McLaren hasn’t been a sweet one. Once a title contender, Daniel now has to settle for the bottom half of the table. As of 2022, many thought his struggle days are over. However, that certainly wasn’t the case.

The 2022 season didn’t start off well for the McLaren man. Having qualified in P18 in Bahrain, the Honey Badger could only manage P14 in the race, that too, after three DNFs of Red Bull and AlphaTauri. The same story repeated in Jeddah where he qualified in P12. But this time the Australian didn’t have the luck to finish the race as he had to retire, due to an issue with his car.

Ricciardo was running in P11 behind his teammate Lando Norris and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. The man down under had to retire in Lap 37 as he stopped his car before the pit lane. It is believed that the Australian lost drive in his MCL36. Daniel stated, “I can’t accelerate” before retiring.

In the video posted by McLaren’s official Twitter handle, it is seen that Daniel walked up to the McLaren pit lane and stood beside his race engineer Tom Stallard.

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Apart from being Daniel’s race engineer, Stallard is an Olympic silver medalist in rowing. The duo then hugged each other before the video came to an end.

How bad has been the journey for Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren?

To call it bad for a driver like Daniel Ricciardo will be an understatement. The driver has underperformed by quite a mile. As of 2022, Daniel is yet to pick up a point, whereas in 2021 he picked up 115 points and ended up in P8 in driver’s standings.

Ricciardo moved to McLaren from Renault in 2021. Apart from a win at Monza, the season couldn’t fetch much for the Australian. Moreover, the man down under has struggled after moving from Renault powered car to Mercedes powered car.

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The team had high expectations of the 32-year-old’s capability and hoped to get help from the former Red Bull star to fight Ferrari for P3 in Constructor’s Championship. Ending the 2021 season in P4, McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo were determined to come back stronger this season until the Mercedes power unit and their own MCL36 issues have crippled them further.