The key test Norris aced that Ricciardo faces in F1 2022

Daniel Ricciardo will always have a special place in McLaren's history. After all, the ever-smiling Australian will always be the driver that ended the storied team’s nine-year wait for a Formula 1 victory, with his famous win at Monza last season.

But when looking at 2021 overall and Ricciardo’s first season in orange, the campaign will be remembered as an enduring tough challenge. He was eclipsed by team-mate Lando Norris during the first half of the year – even getting lapped at Monaco, a race where he is a previous winner. Things improved considerably after the summer break, including his Italian Grand Prix triumph, but come the year’s end Ricciardo finished two places and 45 points behind his team-mate.

This time last year, Ricciardo’s arrival at McLaren in place of Carlos Sainz Jr was viewed as a key test of Norris’s F1 potential. Ricciardo was then a seven-time race winner, with Norris considered a future superstar – if his reputation could survive a battle with a proven F1 ace. It’s worth considering how just two years previously, another highly rated McLaren youngster, Stoffel Vandoorne, rather flamed out, and out of F1 entirely, when taking on Fernando Alonso at the team…

But Norris shone in 2021. And he has now been rewarded with a new McLaren deal that will run until the end of 2025. This development is the latest in a series of moves from teams to tie young hotshots to long-term commitments. There was Max Verstappen’s Red Bull deal, currently running until the end of 2023, and Charles Leclerc’s five-year contract with Ferrari, which is set to expire in 2024.

At McLaren’s 2022 season launch event at Woking last Friday, where the team also revealed the liveries for its IndyCar and Extreme E squads, both of which will run colours taking cues from the MCL36, it was striking just how much Norris now embodies being an F1 star.

The friendly and fun character is still on full display, but, ‘fresh-faced’ is starting to feel like the wrong cliche. And that’s a compliment – Norris is maturing into the life of an F1 racer (with a Monaco move to boot) and he has seized the success to back it up. A first win seems like a much smaller step to take than it did a year ago.

Ricciardo’s career has taken a different path from a similar beginning – as a junior at a famous F1 squad. Timing has a lot to do with it – he’s got 10 years on Norris and is simply of the generation above, so long-term contracts are unlikely to be forthcoming (although of course can never be ruled out).

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, 1st position, performs a shoey on the podium

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Ricciardo is at the ‘win now’ stage – decisions on his future need to be made with that firmly in mind. He took the lucrative offer from Renault when deciding to leave Red Bull in 2018, but jumped ship to better prospects at McLaren as soon as he could.

“I’m in a different place in my career”, he says when Autosport asks what he made of Norris’s new McLaren contract and what that means for his own future. “A long-term goal like that, like that long term stability, is not something which I’m desperate for or need massively”.

“So, we are in a different places. But I do think that McLaren extending their contract with Lando is a good thing. It’s a good thing for the team, but also for Lando. Not only were his performances great last year and he’s on a trajectory of getting better and better, but I know that he loves the team, and that’s a place he wants to be.

“That’s also the most important as well – you need to be in an environment where you’re happy. So, I think both sides now there’s a long term commitment, it’s a really strong thing – especially for a young driver. I think it’s a good move – happy to see it, definitely. Not ‘not happy’ to see it!”

Not a word out of place on a day that fizzed with energy at Woking – McLaren buoyed by the excitement of multi-category new campaigns about to start, with a physical launch event offering the chance to showcase the offerings of its glistening base. But at the same time, there was a tangible real note of ‘expectation management’.

Now comes a big test for one of F1’s established stars: how his reputation will be perceived against the benchmark Norris established in 2021

Team principal Andreas Seidl said McLaren needs to “accept reality” – that it requires more time to achieve its goals of fighting for regular wins and the championships once again. The reason for this positioning is that although McLaren has invested heavily in new facilities, its new windtunnel is still under construction and its updated simulator is still being developed.

Therefore, even with the big chance of a performance lift a major regulations overhaul offers, it comes slightly too soon for McLaren’s commitment to improving capabilities can bear fruit.

Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris with the LEGO® Technic™ McLaren Formula 1 Race Car

Photo by: LEGO®

A ‘win now’ mentality therefore needs to be considered in this context. Even with the apparent expectation that McLaren’s wait for a first title will go beyond the 14 years it has now reached since Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 triumph, Norris still committed his long-term future to the team. Ricciardo is entering the second season of his three-year deal, so his next steps will be critical.

McLaren’s hope is clearly that by the time his current contract is complete or nearing completion, it will finally be a regular winning force once again. But will Ricciardo be in the same position? Now comes a big test for one of F1’s established stars: how his reputation will be perceived against the benchmark Norris established in 2021.

The coming season is of course different. The handling of the ground effect cars will force the drivers to adapt their understanding and style to a new concept – so it would be logical to expect Ricciardo’s struggles with the MCL35M at corner entry to be different or indeed gone this time around. He has been through major rules overhauls twice before (although only one impacting aerodynamics, in 2017) and Norris has not.

But his team-mate has experience of racing a car with Venturi tunnels (albeit only for a year in Formula 2, where the effect is not as pronounced, in 2018) and the need to hustle sometimes unpredictable handling snaps that comes with the ground effect challenge.

Ricciardo does at least have double the amount of testing time with the MCL36 compared to 2021, where he acknowledges having only a day-and-a-half to learn a new machine was tough. Plus, he is now very familiar with McLaren and the long hours he put in to improve last year will stand as a lasting benefit – for instance his confidence in high-speed corners was something he realised suddenly stood out in his skillset because “I didn’t really know my strengths” before his struggles in 2021.

And finally, there is boost of returning home to Australia during the off-season. This meant a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine, which Ricciardo used to train on a static bike to improve his fitness at a time of year when the drivers are normally switched off. He then got the “refresher” of finally seeing family and friends again after the enforced separation the pandemic imposed, but he too was looking different last Friday.

Ricciardo is fresher, even fitter, and seemingly poised to take on his key new test.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Erik Junius