McLaren CEO Zak Brown’s tone recently changed about Daniel Ricciardo. According to Damon Hill, the fact that the American asks his pilot to raise his level is not a coincidence, and the 1996 world champion believes that the Australian must find solutions.
“Zak didn’t take that comment out just because he wanted to make a statement about how he felt about Daniel Ricciardo” says Hill. “There was a lot of speculation and we in the media asked what he was going to do about Daniel Ricciardo.
“Everyone can see he’s hit some kind of blockage somewhere with his performance. He can’t seem to unlock what he needs. I know he won at Monza and he showed that when ‘he’s in the lead, something else lights up. But something’s missing.”
Apart from his victory at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021, Ricciardo is subject to the law of Lando Norris. Hill remembers an exchange where the Australian had fun promising his teammate to beat him, but the reality was different.
“I remember when Lando was already signed to McLaren and then Daniel Ricciardo was signed. Daniel came to us in the paddock and he said to Lando ‘I’m going to finish you off’. It was a risky thing to say, and it feels like the other way around, Daniel was finished off by Lando. He can’t get away with it.”
“The motivation disappears, the questions arise and the pressure falls on the person who signed him. When you pay a driver very expensive, it is inevitable that he will be under enormous pressure. help someone go faster? Probably not. But what to do? I’m as intrigued as the rest of us by this question.”
A situation that Hill experienced against Frentzen
World champion in 1996, Hill went into decline after having to sign for Arrows in 1997, after Patrick Head and Frank Williams fired him harshly, despite the fact that he had just won the world title.
Subsequently, he went to Jordan and won, during his first year in the team, the legendary Belgian Grand Prix 1998. The arrival of Heinz-Harald Frentzen at his side in 1999 put an end to his career, the German brushing Hill in passing. But the main interested party however sees a difference with Ricciardo.
“As a driver, I lived my last year of competition at Jordan. I was in a similar situation, I knew that I was going to stop F1. But I was 39, I knew that I was coming to the end of my career. I couldn’t unlock the performances no matter what I did.”
“I couldn’t get anything out of me. What does that mean? How can it suddenly disappear? Danny is only 32 so he certainly still has a lot to give. Where is it? it’s gone? How do I find it? How do I make it work in this car?”