Daniel Ricciardo explained how McLaren F1’s engineering approach differs from that of Red Bull Racing.
In F1, Daniel Ricciardo spent most of his racing career with Red Bull’s junior team, then called Toro Rosso, before being promoted to Red Bull Racing in 2014.
After five seasons in which he won seven out of eight races, Daniel Ricciardo moved to Renault before moving to McLaren F1 two years later.
Daniel Ricciardo’s spell at McLaren proved difficult and a joint decision was made with the team to end his multi-year contract early.
Daniel Ricciardo will return to Red Bull as reserve driver for 2023.
When asked about the difference in engineering approaches between McLaren and Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo explained that McLaren tends to spend more time on the circuit in hopes of getting more lap times.
“Effort-wise, I think the approach between teams is the same,” Daniel Ricciardo told Beyond The Grid.
“It seemed that McLaren had been on track longer, perhaps especially in the last couple of years, trying to find a few tenths more than Red Bull.”
“But there’s a lot of attention to detail. It’s not that it didn’t work because we were all lazy and left early. It’s probably the other way around, sometimes we think too much and try too hard.”
“And sometimes it felt like I had to go back to basics.”
Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he and McLaren decided to change their approach slightly at one point in 2021 and he believes this has helped them move forward.
“After the summer break last year, we tried to strip that bare, thinking ‘OK, maybe there’s too much information, we’re making it too complicated to drive knowingly, not unknowingly’.”” said Daniel Ricciardo.
“I was thinking in the corners, ‘We have to do this.’ I think we’ve admitted that and made progress, especially in the second half of last year.”
“If we knew what went wrong as a unit, we would have found a way
“But I think both sides can ultimately raise their hand and say, ‘We tried that and it didn’t work.'”
Category: F1 / Daniel Ricardo / Red Bull / mclaren
