Daniel Ricciardo hit another low at the 2022 United States Grand Prix, qualifying 17th and finishing 16th, hitting another low just when he thought things wouldn’t get any worse.
The end of the season couldn’t come any sooner for Daniel Ricciardo, whose deep love for Austin and Texas did not provide him with any extra energy to deliver a decent performance.
The year off the Aussie will have in 2023 will be a much needed break to reflect, recharge before, or if he comes back to Formula 1 in 2024.
After a humiliating race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), where his teammate Lando Norris finished sixth after outqualifying him by over 1.3s on Saturday, Ricciardo was simply a broken man.
“Last year was a struggle,” he told the media, “but now I look back at last year, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s actually pretty good compared to this one’.
“I’m choosing to laugh because I don’t really want to cry,” the usually cheery Australian said. “I’m still going to do what I can in the last three (races) but I’m at a point now where I’m not going to hope or think or expect that it’s going to be an amazing last three races. I’ll do what I can but days like today kind of leave you feeling a bit helpless.”
I’m not able to do what other drivers do
As for his race, Ricciardo said the writing was on the wall from the first few laps; he said: “It’s one of those ones where, like, it’s happened all too often this year where, early in the race, I know… honestly, Lap 8, Lap 10… I know how the rest of the day is going to go.
“You can just feel it, you can also see what the other cars around can do, and simply what I’m not able to,” he added.
“If I knew, then the year would been going better, but it’s, again, not three, four tenths… even three, four tenths is massive.
“I remember when I was with Max, three, four tenths and I’d be throwing things around in my room. But I’m seconds off nearly. It feels so far off that. It’s bizarre,” the bewildered McLaren driver said.
“When you think it can’t get worse, it does. That’s where, I don’t know, I don’t know how I’m continuing to continue because to say it’s painful is an understatement,” a resigned Ricciardo conceded.
“It’s been the year that it’s been… just so far off the pace, I simply can’t lean on the car, I can’t push, I can’t get the time out of it. The inconsistency through the lap times, it shows that it really is a struggle, but to have such a really big margin again, it remains a mystery.
“I love Texas, I love Austin, but that race was not enjoyable for me,” the 33-year-old from Perth concluded.