The "forced break" that was key to Ricciardo's Monza excellence

He stood alone in the gathering darkness. All his peers had long since departed, off to debrief and then enjoy an early night ahead of Formula 1’s second sprint race experience, or perhaps sample what delights of Monza and Milan they could within the current COVID restrictions.

But Daniel Ricciardo was still chatting away – his face mask masking that famous smile. From afar, it wasn’t possible to detect that he was outlining the “internal rage” he was feeling at qualifying just 0.029s adrift of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third place and being 0.006s behind team-mate Lando Norris.

Autosport was alone too – heading down to the Monza mixed zone next to Mercedes’ engineering trucks, squeezed into the bottom of the paddock besides the TV pen where Ricciardo was finishing up. Enquiring eyebrows and small wave towards Ricciardo’s McLaren press attache, Harry, and then man himself are enough to persuade them to stop off for a chat before heading to join the rest of the pack in preparing for the two races to come.

“I like the sprint format,” Ricciardo starts. “I’m not sure it has to be this late, to be honest. Like, if I am going to criticise it, I don’t think we should be finishing at 7 o’clock!”

Ricciardo goes on, soon analysing his last Q3 lap. It finished with him deciding to “just hold onto it in the last sector” after losing time at the della Roggia chicane and he “went purple” with a rapid, committed run through the renamed ‘Curva Alboreto’ to close out the final sector.

But we notice there’s an interesting steel behind his smiling words. He’s not happy to be so close to a brilliant result, but at the same time delighted to be back amongst the leaders.

The Australian’s start to life at McLaren has not been smooth. He struggled to adapt to what the MCL35M needs at corner entry and fit that in alongside his late-braking preference in the initial months after joining the orange squad from Renault. Things weren’t helped by the reduced pre-season testing time in 2021. Overall, he just lacked confidence to take the McLaren to the limit Norris showed it could reach.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

That ceiling is pretty high. Norris threatened the front row in Imola qualifying, then finished on the podium the next day. He disrupted the all-conquering Mercedes squad in Austria having nearly beaten Verstappen to pole at the second Red Bull Ring race. But, perhaps most painfully to Ricciardo, he finished third in Monaco – lapping his team-mate at the scene of Ricciardo’s previously most-recent grand prix win, with Red Bull in 2018.

But there were flashes of promise and potential.

Ricciardo led the way for the McLaren in Spain and exiting the Hungary race’s first corner he was racing past Charles Leclerc to move into second behind Lewis Hamilton after Valtteri Bottas’s had bowled out rivals ahead. Then Lance Stroll’s gaffe took the pair out and left Esteban Ocon in position to score a famous win.

"Maybe [he] needed that break exactly. To step away a bit, reflect and then come back and apply everything we worked through the first half of the season" Andreas Seidl

After that race, Ricciardo sat on his car’s front right wheel in parc ferme – the pain of a missed opportunity clear for all to see.

But what happened next was key to his season’s story. F1’s three-week summer break requires an enforced two-week shutdown at each team. While many of his rivals headed to Mykonos, Ricciardo went to his home in Los Angeles.

There, he was able to reset in the “forced mental break”, reflecting on “the good and the bad” he’d produced so far in 2021. He spent time figuring out how to tackle the second half of the year “with a renewed energy and focus”.

“Sometimes it's good to have a break and have a bit of a distance,” explains McLaren team boss, Andreas Seidl. “Maybe as well after a very intense period for him [after joining the squad] – that he was putting in a lot of energy together with the team and saw the results didn't come.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“Maybe [he] needed that break exactly. To step away a bit, reflect and then come back and apply everything we worked through the first half of the season. Somehow that seems to have worked for the first outing onwards in Spa and it worked out now over the course of the triple header – even if it wasn't that visible for example in Zandvoort because we simply struggled overall with the performance of the car. Very happy for him that he could make this step now.”

Things were better from the off when F1 reconvened at Spa. Although Norris was the lead McLaren driver until his Q3 crash, Ricciardo qualified an excellent fourth in the wet conditions – his confidence with the MCL35M increased and then building as the session went on. He rued a lack of “Q4” considering his sharp improvements.

Zandvoort was tough for McLaren overall, the sweeping, high-speed sequences not suiting its package. After dramatically having to switch late to a left-hand start when his preferred clutch paddle failed at the race start, Ricciardo, who had reached Q3, later obeyed a team order, as he had done at Imola, to let Norris by – this time for strategic reasons. But his team-mate only ended up one spot ahead in 10th.

After getting so close to where he wanted to be in Monza qualifying, Ricciardo was a sprint race star – capitalising on Hamilton’s shocking start (which held back Norris when the world champion moved to defend robustly) to rise to third. That became a front row spot for the grand prix thanks to Bottas’s penalty, which left Ricciardo eying “glory” at the first corner.

After he’d stayed up until nearly 1am to watch F1 fan Emma Raducanu’s history-making US Open win, Ricciardo’s dream scenario played out alongside Verstappen into the Rettifilo chicane.

And he then held the Red Bull brilliantly at bay – utilising McLaren’s traction strengths (Ricciardo and Norris were always towards the top end of the speed figures measured at the finish line following the critical run out of the renamed Parabolica) superbly.

The team had also altered the upper flap of its front wing to shed drag and had a strategy game plan for the race designed around winning. There was nothing to suggest McLaren would be satisfied with another podium given its existing Monza prowess (now enhanced with Mercedes power) and how well Norris had defied Hamilton in the sprint race.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Ricciardo was calm and controlled throughout the first stint pressure from Verstappen, which forced the Dutchman into wrecking his medium tyres. Then after that crash, Ricciardo raised his pace when required to help Norris gap Sergio Perez and Bottas – the tow factor again an important part of McLaren’s game plan to grab all it could from its golden chance.

PLUS: Why Ricciardo was set for Monza F1 triumph even without Verstappen/Hamilton clash

Ricciardo was all his 202-GP-starts. He’s now one of F1's veterans – unafraid to point out things that could be improved, such as the sprint race qualifying time perhaps being too late given it forced drivers into running the clear visors they’d only typically use in the wet and risked the session being aborted by a red flag. Although it should be noted that FIA race director Michael Masi insisted there was “zero stress” about the “dim” light Ricciardo reported in the overcast conditions.

But Ricciardo is still his typical upbeat self – all while being a fierce competitor unafraid to wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s won him fans the world over, with plenty of Tifosi holding signs declaring their feelings for him on the roads leading into the Monza park each day last weekend. He’s proud member of the 20 driver 200 starts club – earning Fernando Alonso's respect in their battle at Germany 2014 a particular highlight of his career so far, alongside those eight victories.

Ricciardo rightfully pointed out that he and McLaren put themselves in position to win and that it wasn’t a result down to luck. Norris echoed that sentiment

So, is he back to his Verstappen-bothering best from their days as closely-matched Red Bull team-mates? Not yet, he says.

“Closer, I’m definitely closer,” he says when asked if there is still work to do in his quest to be fully and naturally gelled with the MCL35M.

“I think there is still more to come. I don’t know if you will ever find everything but that’s obviously the way the sport is. The sport evolves and changes and you are trying to keep up with it.

“Just inside myself I’ve felt better since the second half of the season and that doesn’t always need to translate into lap times. It’s just me throwing the car round, feeling a bit more comfortable with it, that’s stuff I know. I don’t think all of it has translated yet into the stopwatch but there is certainly a bit more comfort and confidence that’s coming through from myself.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, 1st position, celebrates with his team in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“I just look to keep building on that. I think we will get tracks that suit [McLaren], some that don’t. But I would like to think the second half of the season there will be some more consistency and hopefully more of these type of results.”

As the celebrations wound down on Sunday night, it was time to reflect on just how the race had been won. Ricciardo rightfully pointed out that he and McLaren put themselves in position to win and that it wasn’t a result down to luck. Norris echoed that sentiment.

There was also a sense that Norris had had to hold back in the second half of the race. But both drivers knew that teamwork and co-operation would be key to getting either the win McLaren had been seeking for nearly nine years alone, or maybe going even better with a first 1-2 since Canada 2010.

Norris wisely chose not to try and seek the victory glory himself, having seen the Verstappen/Hamilton collision in his wing mirrors and deciding he didn’t want similar circumstances to play out just when McLaren was seizing the chance it had craved for so long.

Norris has been excellent in 2021 and some think he could have been the winner of the Spa race farce (surely not how he'd want to take his first F1 win!) given his speed up until his Eau Rouge Q3 crash.

On the evidence he’s provided so far this year, he should have nothing to fear from an improved Ricciardo. Although if he'll remain so cordial if his team-mate starts sweeping up many more glittering McLaren results at his expense is harder to predict...

Lando Norris, McLaren, 2nd position, and Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, 1st position, on the podium

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The entity that should be happiest with Ricciardo's return to form is his team. McLaren has been the best-of-the-rest behind the 'Class A' squads in F1 for the last two seasons, as its recovery from misery with Honda goes from strength to strength.

Now it has a race win to prove its credentials – a well-run and ambitious operation of which McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Seidl should be very proud. How Seidl led his team’s celebrations in the Monza pitlane last Sunday evening reinforced his reputation as a team boss many drivers and F1 staff really want to work for.

A restored Ricciardo and Norris showing no signs of falling away from the incredible level he has reached in 2021, makes a case for McLaren possessing the strongest driver line-up in F1.

There needs to be more consistent evidence they can both regularly deliver their best if they are to topple Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr from that current position. But heading towards 2022, the prospect of battles between a full-strength McLaren line-up taking on a refreshed Ferrari squad, the potent Hamilton/George Russell pairing coming at Mercedes, plus Red Bull's Verstappen-tipped spear should excite F1 fans everywhere.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images