Unusually for a driver who has previously managed to stay out of trouble, Ricciardo has collected the most penalty points of any driver this year: Five
Nico Hulkenberg
Hulkenberg is tied with perennial start specialist Stroll for most places gained on lap one: a net total of 21 (average of 1.75 places per race)
Romain Grosjean
The opposite of Hulkenberg: Grosjean has lost the most places on lap one, a net total of 28 (average 2.33 per race)
Kevin Magnussen
While Grosjean loses the most places at the start, Magnussen loses the most over a full race: On average he finishes 1.9 places lower than he starts
Carlos Sainz Jnr
Sainz has spent twice as many laps in front of his team mate as Norris has…
Lando Norris
…but Norris has out-qualified his team mate twice as many times as Sainz
Sergio Perez
Perez is the only driver to reach Q3 whose team mate never has
Lance Stroll
Stroll has gone out in Q1 11 times, while Perez has only four Q1 exits
Kimi Raikkonen
Raikkonen has scored all bar one of Alfa Romeo’s 32 points so far
Antonio Giovinazzi
Giovinazzi is the only driver in his first full season who is not winning the qualifying battle against his team mate
Daniil Kvyat
Kvyat’s third place in Germany was Toro Rosso’s first podium for more than a decade and accounts for more than half his total points haul
Alexander Albon
The Toro Rosso drivers are closest in terms of which driver has been ahead for the most laps. Albon trails Kvyat 341 laps to 355, but over the last five races has been ahead 231 to 134
George Russell
Russell is dominating Kubica in qualifying: Not only 12-0 up (as Perez also is against Stroll) but averaging 0.583 seconds quicker
Robert Kubica
Williams’ only point of the season so far was scored by Kubica, in one of only two occasions he’s led Russell home
I wonder what marko and horner now think about their treatment of ricciardo. Not only were their treatment of the baku incident in favor of verstappen but they probably also lowballed their wage offerings hoping to get ricciardo on the cheap because they thought ricciardo has no other options. Looking at the situation now red bull is going to lose millions as a team on possible prize money rewards. Not just less points earned but likely finishing behind ferrari in the team championship.
And while gasly’s lack of pace has been a surprise to us viewers it can not have been a as big surprise to red bull. A driver simply does not or should not start massively under performing when he switches teams. Red bull must have known they are not promoting the next verstappen with gasly. Which makes their treatment of ricciardo even more bizarre. In other words red bull management played stupid games and now they are winning their stupid prizes. What is pretty certain is that had red bull paid ricciardo what he wanted or at least treated their drivers equally they’d be ahead of ferrari and as such ricciardo’s higher wage would have been paid back from the money the team gets from finishing higher in the championship.
If you start with a false premise and back it up with false arguments, you end with a big heap of nonsense.
The facts are that Ric sold himself to the engine manufacturer that was the cause of most of his troubles.
No guts to face the challenge called Max, No glory.
He’ll just have to live with his decision and enjoy his money.
I have to disagree about Red Bull being aware of Gasly’s poor performance. If Red Bull really thought he was that bad, they wouldn’t have promoted him.
Drivers can struggle to adapt to different cars. Look at Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009 – straight off the back of a podium in a force India, by far their best ever result, he went into a far better car and his performances dropped off a cliff, both qualifying and finishing the race significantly behind his old teammate in the worse car.
Also look at Seb vs Ricciardo at red bull. I have absolute faith that Vettel is nowhere near that far off the pace, just that the car suited Daniel better.
It is a sign of champion that the driver should be able to change his driving style to get the most out of the car. If vettel was not able to do it then it was more vettel’s weakness than weakness in the car. I don’t think red bull thought gasly was horrible. But they must have known he is not the next big name. There are ways to see skill or lack of thereof in telemetry for example. A less skilled driver makes more errors, his lap times vary more, he gets more easily lost in setups and he is slower to react to changing conditions. And when the pressure builds you can rely on them getting the best out of the car whereas more mediocre driver has more ups and downs.
I think red bull just never expected ricciardo to move to other team. So when ricciardo left they had to put someone into the other seat and with hartley out their only opportunity was gasly. Ocon was tied to mercedes and all the other young drivers were tied to other teams already. And time was running out. After all red bull was in a very difficult situation after last year that they effectively needed 3 drivers. One for red bull and two for toro rosso. Only highly skilled driver available for red bull was alonso and I’m sure there was lots of loud japanese swearing if that name was actually mentioned.
@socksolid I agree. Taking Leclerc and Verstappen as examples, the best drivers hit the ground running in the top teams, however young they are. As did Ricciardo. As did Hamilton, obviously, before them. Either Gasly has maintained the same (substandard for Red Bull) level, or he’s dipped, but it doesn’t matter, surely, either way. Top drivers should be showing talent, speed, flair, an immediate desire to impress and beat an ‘established’ team mate. The rookie and new team errors are factored in and OK.
@socksolid: Alonso and Verstappen in the same team? That would have been EPIC XDD. But no sane manager (nor Horner) would have ever done that, that would have been a guaranteed disaster for the team.
Yes, I remember reading (wasn’t following in 2009) fisichella really wanted to drive for ferrari, as an italian driver ofc, and sacrificed a more competitive (at the time) force india to get the chance.
I agree with the idea Red Bull didn’t treat Daniel fairly. I too believe if they had then he’d have stayed and their Constructors’ Championship points would be better than Ferrari’s.
Anyway, the dice were thrown and this is how they landed. So Pierre is at RBR and Daniel isn’t.
I suspect Pierre does have the ability to drive closer to the level of Daniel and Max, meaning he needs to be putting in hours every day studying how Max drives and how Daniel drove. Christian Horner said he has access to all the race data from Max (and probably Daniel as well), so the onus is on Pierre to improve his performance.
You think Ricciardo left because of money? He left because he had no future in a team only focused on and completely biased towards their little baby prodigy. You cannot drive against your team and could never have prospered in that situation. The only thing that’s bizarre is how a top team can be so blinded.
I wonder what marko and horner now think about their treatment of ricciardo. Not only were their treatment of the baku incident in favor of verstappen
Thats an opinion not a fact!
but they probably also lowballed their wage offerings hoping to get ricciardo on the cheap because they thought ricciardo has no other options.
That;s not what even ricci said. His earning at Renault are slightly higher then the Red Bull offer. It was a decision made by his father according to ricci and his lack of faith in the Honda project.
Lots of people with lots of opinions about Ricciardo…most of them can;t be bothered by what Dan actually said about it himself…it would just blurr their biased opinion.
In a recent interview Dan talked about his reason to leave Red Bull…. and it’s none of what people actually writing on forums…maybe cause it’s not ‘rock and roll’ enough….?
According to Dan the team never treated the drivers differently, both enjoyed upgrades when they came available and the team didn’t interfere with dodgy strategies. Neither was Max the reason… Dan mentioned, that was quite exaggerated by the media, but never an issues Dan said. About the financial part… Renault’s offer was in the same ballpark as RBR’s, not much of a difference there….
Dan left cause he felt Honda was a gamble and didn’t feel comfortable with RB’s choice… he had talks with McLaren and Renault… though only RBR and Renault seem realistic options… a one year deal didn’t seem the right choice so Dan took a gamble with Renault over RBR/Honda.
The full interview includes quotes from Dan and can be found on Speedweek.
@Matn Thank you for that. Was going to say some things on a similar vein. Never did it feel to me from anything DR said, that he was being mistreated or misfavoured in any way and by all accounts RBR tried to keep him by offering him everything he had wanted, including salary. They were surprised by DR’s decision as two days prior they were convinced he would stay with them. TW was surprised too and suddenly found himself spending last year’s August break scrambling to find Ocon a seat. That’s how caught off guard TW was. None of what happened sounded like this was a no-brainer decision for DR that most expected.
Of course ricciardo doesn’t want to burn his bridges by saying bad things about his previous employer. Not only would it hurt his chances of driving for red bull ever again but also every other team would think twice before taking a driver who will talk badly about them afterwards. It is better to keep his mouth shut and save the best bits for the book. Especially since ricciardo’s issues were most likely with the management at red bull. Marko and horner. Not with max or not getting equal equipment or strategy.
Do you expect drivers to always tell the truth exactly like it is in interviews? No of course not. But according to you that means everybody is a liar.
It was a decision made by his father according to ricci
I’m a bit confused about this part of your comment – are you suggesting that Ricciardo’s dad made the decision for him to move? I haven’t read any articles in which this suggestion was made.
@socksolid
Hmmm, RBR is third in the championship, they have a very cheap driver who’s salary cancels the deficit for losing out on 2nd place, they have a great relation with their new engine supplier, they have won races, they have the best driver and they get tons and tons of great publicity….so it’s not about what Marko and Horner are thinking, the real question is: “What was Daniel thinking when he fled a team that’s always been good to him, treated him as fair as their other drivers (Daniels words), gave him a lot of freedom living the live he wants, where basically square with Renault regarding their financial offers (Daniels words) and really wanted to keep him.
To think RB had Sainz locked in and let him go for what? There is no acrimony between him and Max. they’ve both stated as such various times and are often seen chatting together at the driver parade. Baffling decision.
I do agree with your point regarding gasly costing RBR money in terms of prize money. But I don’t think Ricciardo left RBR because of money issues. I think he understood that RBR already were behind Max like they were behind Seb between 2010 to 2013. This reason maybe had a much more hand in Ricciardo switching teams.
I think it is a combination of both. The money probably being the lesser reason to leave red bull and the preferential treatment to max being the main one. Maybe the low money was the final draw and then renault came along and offered more money and actual equality with team mates and ricciardo just saw it as an out. Renault is not going to win championships anytime soon but neither is red bull so from that pov not much is changed. However I think the renault move is a huge risk for ricciardo. He is now driving for relatively uncompetitive team which will also hurt his own value. Just compare how highly you rate ricciardo now compared to after last season. Couple more seasons like this and you could have situation where he is simply forgotten by the top teams.
Honda is the reason to why Dan left…
Neither Renault nor RBR may be championship contenders…but 9 teams haven’t been in 6 years..
Fighting for P2/3 in the standing is realistic for Verstappen, fighting for podiums and wins are so to… that’s quite a bit more than Renault as the 6th team on the grid can offer… and it shows, Dan took more penalty points in half a season than over a couple of years together.
Renault finished 4th in constructor’s last year. If you believe everything ricciardo says publicly then sure it was all about honda. I think that is very naive to think ricciardo would rather swap to midfield team from race winning team just because there is uncertainty about the engines.
@socksolid
Please enlighten us: When does DR speak the truth, and when not?
Guys like you are pathetic you know..on the one hand trying to defend Daniel making baseless accusations and on the other hand claiming everything he said regarding his move are lies and PR speak….I really hope you never feel the need to defend me, because with “friends” like you, who needs enemies!
While Gasly is only five points ahead of a McLaren (Sainz), Verstappen is just seven points behind a Mercedes (Bottas). Gasly is the only driver from the ‘top three’ teams not to have completed a single lap inside the top three positions
Red Bull are a bit like that man, who would be able to fight tigers and conquer space if only his wife did not make him wash dishes all the time. The last time they were forced to choose the best bad (or inexperienced) driver from their development program we got a ‘torpedo’, now we have ghastly jokes. On the other hand, as long as Verstappen keeps taking everyone’s breath away, Red Bull probably do not care much.
Gabriel (@rethla)
11th August 2019, 12:13
I should say stop picking on poor Gasly all the time but i know i cant even stop myself…
Tango (@tango)
11th August 2019, 20:25
I was sure it was the good, the bad and the Gasly #notenglishnative
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
11th August 2019, 22:11
He is probably slower then Ericsson thats an insane achievement
socksolid (@socksolid)
11th August 2019, 12:55
I wonder what marko and horner now think about their treatment of ricciardo. Not only were their treatment of the baku incident in favor of verstappen but they probably also lowballed their wage offerings hoping to get ricciardo on the cheap because they thought ricciardo has no other options. Looking at the situation now red bull is going to lose millions as a team on possible prize money rewards. Not just less points earned but likely finishing behind ferrari in the team championship.
And while gasly’s lack of pace has been a surprise to us viewers it can not have been a as big surprise to red bull. A driver simply does not or should not start massively under performing when he switches teams. Red bull must have known they are not promoting the next verstappen with gasly. Which makes their treatment of ricciardo even more bizarre. In other words red bull management played stupid games and now they are winning their stupid prizes. What is pretty certain is that had red bull paid ricciardo what he wanted or at least treated their drivers equally they’d be ahead of ferrari and as such ricciardo’s higher wage would have been paid back from the money the team gets from finishing higher in the championship.
Pero
11th August 2019, 13:42
If you start with a false premise and back it up with false arguments, you end with a big heap of nonsense.
The facts are that Ric sold himself to the engine manufacturer that was the cause of most of his troubles.
No guts to face the challenge called Max, No glory.
He’ll just have to live with his decision and enjoy his money.
minnis (@minnis)
11th August 2019, 16:35
I have to disagree about Red Bull being aware of Gasly’s poor performance. If Red Bull really thought he was that bad, they wouldn’t have promoted him.
Drivers can struggle to adapt to different cars. Look at Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009 – straight off the back of a podium in a force India, by far their best ever result, he went into a far better car and his performances dropped off a cliff, both qualifying and finishing the race significantly behind his old teammate in the worse car.
Also look at Seb vs Ricciardo at red bull. I have absolute faith that Vettel is nowhere near that far off the pace, just that the car suited Daniel better.
socksolid (@socksolid)
11th August 2019, 18:56
It is a sign of champion that the driver should be able to change his driving style to get the most out of the car. If vettel was not able to do it then it was more vettel’s weakness than weakness in the car. I don’t think red bull thought gasly was horrible. But they must have known he is not the next big name. There are ways to see skill or lack of thereof in telemetry for example. A less skilled driver makes more errors, his lap times vary more, he gets more easily lost in setups and he is slower to react to changing conditions. And when the pressure builds you can rely on them getting the best out of the car whereas more mediocre driver has more ups and downs.
I think red bull just never expected ricciardo to move to other team. So when ricciardo left they had to put someone into the other seat and with hartley out their only opportunity was gasly. Ocon was tied to mercedes and all the other young drivers were tied to other teams already. And time was running out. After all red bull was in a very difficult situation after last year that they effectively needed 3 drivers. One for red bull and two for toro rosso. Only highly skilled driver available for red bull was alonso and I’m sure there was lots of loud japanese swearing if that name was actually mentioned.
David BR (@david-br)
11th August 2019, 19:14
@socksolid I agree. Taking Leclerc and Verstappen as examples, the best drivers hit the ground running in the top teams, however young they are. As did Ricciardo. As did Hamilton, obviously, before them. Either Gasly has maintained the same (substandard for Red Bull) level, or he’s dipped, but it doesn’t matter, surely, either way. Top drivers should be showing talent, speed, flair, an immediate desire to impress and beat an ‘established’ team mate. The rookie and new team errors are factored in and OK.
Alonso (@alonshow)
18th August 2019, 2:48
@socksolid: Alonso and Verstappen in the same team? That would have been EPIC XDD. But no sane manager (nor Horner) would have ever done that, that would have been a guaranteed disaster for the team.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
12th August 2019, 13:53
@minnis I agree with all but perhaps the force India was faster than the Ferrari, I’m sure it was.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
13th August 2019, 3:40
Yes, I remember reading (wasn’t following in 2009) fisichella really wanted to drive for ferrari, as an italian driver ofc, and sacrificed a more competitive (at the time) force india to get the chance.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
11th August 2019, 18:32
I agree with the idea Red Bull didn’t treat Daniel fairly. I too believe if they had then he’d have stayed and their Constructors’ Championship points would be better than Ferrari’s.
Anyway, the dice were thrown and this is how they landed. So Pierre is at RBR and Daniel isn’t.
I suspect Pierre does have the ability to drive closer to the level of Daniel and Max, meaning he needs to be putting in hours every day studying how Max drives and how Daniel drove. Christian Horner said he has access to all the race data from Max (and probably Daniel as well), so the onus is on Pierre to improve his performance.
OmegaWave
11th August 2019, 18:49
You think Ricciardo left because of money? He left because he had no future in a team only focused on and completely biased towards their little baby prodigy. You cannot drive against your team and could never have prospered in that situation. The only thing that’s bizarre is how a top team can be so blinded.
erikje
11th August 2019, 19:28
Thats an opinion not a fact!
That;s not what even ricci said. His earning at Renault are slightly higher then the Red Bull offer. It was a decision made by his father according to ricci and his lack of faith in the Honda project.
Matn
11th August 2019, 21:52
Lots of people with lots of opinions about Ricciardo…most of them can;t be bothered by what Dan actually said about it himself…it would just blurr their biased opinion.
In a recent interview Dan talked about his reason to leave Red Bull…. and it’s none of what people actually writing on forums…maybe cause it’s not ‘rock and roll’ enough….?
According to Dan the team never treated the drivers differently, both enjoyed upgrades when they came available and the team didn’t interfere with dodgy strategies. Neither was Max the reason… Dan mentioned, that was quite exaggerated by the media, but never an issues Dan said. About the financial part… Renault’s offer was in the same ballpark as RBR’s, not much of a difference there….
Dan left cause he felt Honda was a gamble and didn’t feel comfortable with RB’s choice… he had talks with McLaren and Renault… though only RBR and Renault seem realistic options… a one year deal didn’t seem the right choice so Dan took a gamble with Renault over RBR/Honda.
The full interview includes quotes from Dan and can be found on Speedweek.
Robbie (@robbie)
12th August 2019, 0:33
@Matn Thank you for that. Was going to say some things on a similar vein. Never did it feel to me from anything DR said, that he was being mistreated or misfavoured in any way and by all accounts RBR tried to keep him by offering him everything he had wanted, including salary. They were surprised by DR’s decision as two days prior they were convinced he would stay with them. TW was surprised too and suddenly found himself spending last year’s August break scrambling to find Ocon a seat. That’s how caught off guard TW was. None of what happened sounded like this was a no-brainer decision for DR that most expected.
RP (@slotopen)
12th August 2019, 4:01
It is good to listen to the interviews. But no driver can really tell the whole truth, especially while they are still racing.
He can say the right thing in interviews, but I’m confident most of us would feel differently, and it is a safe bet he does too.
socksolid (@socksolid)
12th August 2019, 9:17
Of course ricciardo doesn’t want to burn his bridges by saying bad things about his previous employer. Not only would it hurt his chances of driving for red bull ever again but also every other team would think twice before taking a driver who will talk badly about them afterwards. It is better to keep his mouth shut and save the best bits for the book. Especially since ricciardo’s issues were most likely with the management at red bull. Marko and horner. Not with max or not getting equal equipment or strategy.
Oconomo
12th August 2019, 9:24
@socksolid
“Of course ricciardo doesn’t want to burn his bridges by saying bad things about his previous employer.”
So you’re actually calling him a liar? Damn, and you accuse RBR of treating him poorly, lol.
socksolid (@socksolid)
12th August 2019, 13:22
Do you expect drivers to always tell the truth exactly like it is in interviews? No of course not. But according to you that means everybody is a liar.
HR (@hiperr)
12th August 2019, 6:52
I’m a bit confused about this part of your comment – are you suggesting that Ricciardo’s dad made the decision for him to move? I haven’t read any articles in which this suggestion was made.
Oconomo
12th August 2019, 9:21
@socksolid
Hmmm, RBR is third in the championship, they have a very cheap driver who’s salary cancels the deficit for losing out on 2nd place, they have a great relation with their new engine supplier, they have won races, they have the best driver and they get tons and tons of great publicity….so it’s not about what Marko and Horner are thinking, the real question is: “What was Daniel thinking when he fled a team that’s always been good to him, treated him as fair as their other drivers (Daniels words), gave him a lot of freedom living the live he wants, where basically square with Renault regarding their financial offers (Daniels words) and really wanted to keep him.
RB13
12th August 2019, 11:53
To think RB had Sainz locked in and let him go for what? There is no acrimony between him and Max. they’ve both stated as such various times and are often seen chatting together at the driver parade. Baffling decision.
Matt (@hollidog)
12th August 2019, 12:37
I think the problem was between their fathers
knightameer (@knightameer)
11th August 2019, 14:41
I do agree with your point regarding gasly costing RBR money in terms of prize money. But I don’t think Ricciardo left RBR because of money issues. I think he understood that RBR already were behind Max like they were behind Seb between 2010 to 2013. This reason maybe had a much more hand in Ricciardo switching teams.
socksolid (@socksolid)
11th August 2019, 16:41
I think it is a combination of both. The money probably being the lesser reason to leave red bull and the preferential treatment to max being the main one. Maybe the low money was the final draw and then renault came along and offered more money and actual equality with team mates and ricciardo just saw it as an out. Renault is not going to win championships anytime soon but neither is red bull so from that pov not much is changed. However I think the renault move is a huge risk for ricciardo. He is now driving for relatively uncompetitive team which will also hurt his own value. Just compare how highly you rate ricciardo now compared to after last season. Couple more seasons like this and you could have situation where he is simply forgotten by the top teams.
Matn
11th August 2019, 21:56
Honda is the reason to why Dan left…
Neither Renault nor RBR may be championship contenders…but 9 teams haven’t been in 6 years..
Fighting for P2/3 in the standing is realistic for Verstappen, fighting for podiums and wins are so to… that’s quite a bit more than Renault as the 6th team on the grid can offer… and it shows, Dan took more penalty points in half a season than over a couple of years together.
socksolid (@socksolid)
12th August 2019, 9:21
Renault finished 4th in constructor’s last year. If you believe everything ricciardo says publicly then sure it was all about honda. I think that is very naive to think ricciardo would rather swap to midfield team from race winning team just because there is uncertainty about the engines.
Oconomo
12th August 2019, 9:29
@socksolid
Please enlighten us: When does DR speak the truth, and when not?
Guys like you are pathetic you know..on the one hand trying to defend Daniel making baseless accusations and on the other hand claiming everything he said regarding his move are lies and PR speak….I really hope you never feel the need to defend me, because with “friends” like you, who needs enemies!
Balue (@balue)
11th August 2019, 17:53
Fun facts
Saad Mughal
11th August 2019, 18:51
Title should say ‘the good, the bad and the Gasly’
Esploratore (@esploratore)
13th August 2019, 3:37
Ahaha, that’s gold!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
13th August 2019, 3:38
The good, the bad and the atrocious, basically.
Girts (@girts)
11th August 2019, 19:40
Red Bull are a bit like that man, who would be able to fight tigers and conquer space if only his wife did not make him wash dishes all the time. The last time they were forced to choose the best bad (or inexperienced) driver from their development program we got a ‘torpedo’, now we have ghastly jokes. On the other hand, as long as Verstappen keeps taking everyone’s breath away, Red Bull probably do not care much.
Matn
11th August 2019, 21:57
Most amazing…. Sainz versus Norris, not much logic to it, yet it turned out that way
RP (@slotopen)
12th August 2019, 4:03
It is good to listen to the interviews. But no driver can really tell the whole truth, especially while they are still racing.
He can say the right thing in interviews, but I’m confident most of us would feel differently, and it is a safe bet he does too.
RP (@slotopen)
12th August 2019, 4:14
Man, those Haas drivers. Those stats are harsh. They need to borrow Bottas for a season.