The F1 racing statement that Ricciardo should make again

The clothes and colours were different, the smile was the same.

Daniel Ricciardo made his first full public appearance for McLaren at the unveiling of the team's MCL35M challenger. The Formula 1 world is reading the opening sentences of the latest chapter in his story - the cuddly 'Honey Badger' on display again.

He's making his second new start in three calendar years, but this one will be a little different to the last, given the ongoing disruption of the pandemic. And Ricciardo's first challenge will be fitting in at his new squad - something he highlighted as particularly important. A good thing, then, he is who he is - with former squad Renault noting his ability to lift a room, such is his engaging character.

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"[It's about] kind of being integrated, not only into the driving side, but into all of it - into the engineering into the strategy," says Ricciardo. "I've already had so many meetings here at the MTC with not only my engineer, but really with the whole racing department. And so, it's kind of like, feeling like you're sitting in the room with a voice and with enough knowledge that what you say will be taken on board.

"I think that whole integration into all areas of the race team - that's probably got a lot more power than just being the driver, and only the driver. So, I think that feeling like you can sit in every room and have a presence that's probably most important, but it also kind of the most difficult thing to get going."

This is an intriguing moment for Ricciardo. He has now arrived at McLaren, a team that he suggested hadn't quite got its puzzle pieces fully arranged when he considered it as an option for his move from Red Bull past 2018. Now, he says it's got "really good stability in the team and the infrastructure" thanks to the ongoing work of Zak Brown, Andreas Seidl and James Key, and that he will be "basically just fitting in to the puzzle, as opposed to trying to put it all together". Ricciardo will do this at 31, which puts him 10 years older than new team-mate Lando Norris.

Ricciardo is in his prime years - although age of course is no firm barrier to motorsport success - yet he is making another new start. These things generally take time to bed in, to optimise, to infuse - pick your cliche. But Ricciardo opted to make this change before turning a wheel for Renault in 2020, the Honey Badger's ruthless side on display.

He has now revealed that his McLaren deal will run for three years, which commits him to the team through F1's upcoming rules reset. Both team and driver will be eying that moment as a pivotal point in their shared futures. It offers the tantalising hope of world championship success for the squads that can nail the new regulations and prevail in what F1 observers hope will be a closed-up field.

"I felt [2014] was really my year to make a bit of a statement, to be the guy that was not afraid to put on a big move, to race hard. I didn't feel I'd quite had that yet. And that first year with Red Bull was my chance" Daniel Ricciardo

During the virtual press conferences that preceded the MCL35M's launch, Ricciardo was asked about the 20th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's death on Thursday. As a child racing in karts, Ricciardo was a big fan of the NASCAR megastar, taking Earnhardt's #3 designation as his own in karting homage, and going back to that number when F1 drivers were allowed to pick their own and keep them for the duration of their careers in the championship from the start of 2014.

"I also had it in the back of my mind to take on 'The Intimidator' and obviously my version of that was 'The Honey Badger," Ricciardo explains. "But I felt it was really my year to make a bit of a statement, to be the guy that was not afraid to put on a big move, to race hard.

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"I didn't feel I'd quite had that yet. And that first year with Red Bull was my chance to really make that statement and to earn that reputation. So, for sure part of that was on the back of Earnhardt and how he inspired me."

Joining Red Bull was Ricciardo's first real stab at starting afresh in a new F1 team (after making his debut in 2011 with a half-season for HRT before racing, as expected as a Red Bull junior, for Toro Rosso from 2012). So, it's worth revisiting that year again as he embarks on his latest team change.

Ricciardo's stated approach to making a splash paid off. He won three times in a year that Mercedes utterly dominated at the start of the turbo hybrid era, essentially ended Sebastian Vettel's time as Red Bull's untouchable star, and at the end of the year he finished third in the championship and was selected as Autosport's number one in our regular Top 50 Drivers of the Year ranking.

He repeated that latter feat in 2016, maturing after shuffling down five spots in 2015 as he struggled accepting that despite his skills at the top level, he lacked the machinery to be world champion and so overdrove.

In 2017, Max Verstappen's first full year as a Red Bull racer, he slid down our ranking, as for the first time since joining the senior squad, he was outperformed by a team-mate. In 2018 he couldn't overcome the reliability issues that plagued his final Red Bull year, and in 2019 both he and Renault had rather low-key years, although Ricciardo earned praise for edging a driver of Nico Hulkenberg's calibre. In 2020, as Renault finally made good on its aim to get back to the podium, Ricciardo shone to a much greater extent.

Before F1 gets to its 2022 reset (assuming the competitive order is indeed shaken up), the 2021 midfield fight could be even more crowded than last year. Ferrari is hoping to move back up the order with its new engine, while Aston Martin will be aiming to keep its late 2020 form and not slip back to its underachievement at last season's start. Plus, if Sergio Perez gets closer to Verstappen than Alex Albon managed at Red Bull, those precious few podium chances for those outside the reduced 'Class A' could become even rarer.

So, perhaps it is worth Ricciardo revisiting the approach that made him an F1 megastar in 2014. It's not because he lost that - he has remained one of the championship's best racers ever since - but for the potential benefits it may bring. An impressive immediate display for McLaren would reinforce his quality and help both parties gather momentum going into the new era.

After all, Ricciardo is convinced McLaren is now "a real contender". Linking all of that together with his potential (plus Norris's) raises expectations of McLaren doing something special. Its former charge, the highly-rated Carlos Sainz Jr, knows this is hard to achieve in the crowded midfield, but his McLaren displays led to a Ferrari drive...

"We don't have a crystal ball," Ricciardo says when asked why he thinks McLaren is the place to achieve the success he didn't at his previous F1 homes. "So, again, like leaving Red Bull or leaving Renault - it's obviously what I feel is right.

"Do I know 100% how it's gonna turn out? I don't. But I certainly feel like McLaren have done the right things - particularly the last few years - to set themselves up.

"In particular for these rule changes coming in 2022. I think that next era of F1 has the ability to certainly turn the field around a little bit. And just everything I've seen and everything I've kind of known up until now really excites me about where McLaren is heading. So, it's really that more than anything."

At the very least it will be entertaining. But that's where Ricciardo comes into his own. The captivating Honey Badger.