Former McLaren driver turned Formula 1 pundit David Coulthard has called for Daniel Ricciardo reappraise some of his life choices in his year off to get back to his best before 2024.
Ricciardo has confirmed that he won’t be on the grid next year after turning down options to race in the lower reaches of the midfield following his sacking by McLaren.
The Australian is targeting a reserve-driver position for 2023, with Mercedes and Red Bull Racing believed to be in negotiation for his services.
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He also wants to use the year out to mentally reset after a painful pair of years alongside Lando Norris at McLaren.
Speaking to the In the Fast Lane podcast, Coulthard said he hoped Ricciardo would also use his time out of the paddock to reassess some of the life choices he’s made since rising to Formula 1 stardom and weed out those that might be undermining his performance.
“I think he needs to step away, take stock and rediscover whatever it was that was working for him in the first part of his Formula 1 journey,” Coulthard said. “He’s young enough and fit enough to be able to get back to that place.
“Success brings a lot of things and it brings baggage. Maybe some of that baggage is really expensive designer baggage, but it still has to be carried. For some people, that slows them down.”
Brand Ricciardo has proliferated since leaving Red Bull Racing at the end of 2018, with the West Australian boasting several blue-chip personal sponsors based in Australia and internationally.
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He’s also started a high-profile collaboration with Barossa Valley winery St Hugo, with which Ricciardo is involved in producing and releasing wines under the DR3 label annually.
Ricciardo is also notably spending more time in the United States, having made no secret of his affinity for the country. He reportedly owns a home in the California.
“I would — not that he’s asking me! — say, ‘Right let’s just take it back to where you were. How were you living at that point? What was it that your mind was filled with?’,” Coulthard said.
“Because maybe he’s become more focused on his wine business or spending time in America or whatever it is. But something has definitely changed that’s not allowing him to release that absolute honey badger performance like we’ve seen in the past.”
Ricciardo’s sprawling business interests beyond Formula 1 are built in equal parts on what was his trademark swashbuckling on-track style and his universally likeable personality, a combination of attributes previously assumed to be infallible before his move to McLaren.
While his popularity among F1 fans is undimmed, Coulthard warned that Ricciardo couldn’t rely on the banked goodwill of his past performances indefinitely.
“It’s obviously been painful for us all to see his struggles in the McLaren,” he said.
“Daniel was one of the most exciting drivers to see go racing — you know, one of the last of the late brakers, always able to pull off some big passes.
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“Having left Red Bull as a grand prix winner, the Renault experiment didn’t give him the big results. One victory with McLaren of course in the race in Monza where Lando was second is not the consistency of results that we were used to.
“The performance relative to Lando doesn’t lie. No matter how affectionately we all talk about Daniel — he’s definitely one of the fans’ favourites — this is a stopwatch game, it’s not a personality business.
“It’s good if you’ve got a nice personality if you’re delivering, but ultimately that’s not enough to keep you in Formula 1.
“Let’s hope he regroups, comes back and shows us the Daniel that we all fell in love with, which was a high-achieving, hard-racing straight-talking, big-grinning Aussie.
“I hope to see Daniel in Formula 1 again.”
