How Ricciardo’s struggles can give his McLaren replacement a ‘head start’

The highly-rated Piastri will make his F1 debut with McLaren in 2023, having been signed to replace Ricciardo, whose contract was terminated 12 months early following his underwhelming performances alongside Lando Norris during his two-year stint at Woking. 

Despite losing his spot to Piastri and being left without a full-time seat in the F1 2023 driver line-up, there are no hard feelings between the pair, who were spotted driving an orange McLaren together in Melbourne. 

Ricciardo has even offered his young compatriot some words of wisdom as he prepares to embark on his rookie F1 season. 

“I think just go out and drive,” Ricciardo told F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast. “I know that sounds like a really lazy response but it’s just go and drive.

“Learn, be a sponge, but drive. Don’t see the bar too high for yourself, if you end up doing better than maybe what you thought, awesome, but just take it race by race. 

“But as long as you are learning and you feel like you are improving every race, I think that is all you can kind of ask for yourself.”

Aside from claiming McLaren’s first victory in a decade with a brilliant drive at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, Ricciardo endured a torrid spell as he struggled to get to grips with McLaren’s F1 challenger. 

But the 33-year-old, who has returned to Red Bull as a third driver for this season, reckons his difficult time at McLaren could end up proving beneficial for Piastri. 

“I think also even if we didn’t quite get it right from my side, with McLaren I think they still would’ve learnt a bunch from our two years, and maybe things where we deviated, went a little wrong or sideways,” Ricciardo explained. 

“So, I think all that, that knowledge can be passed on to Oscar and I think they will. I would like to think they will have a little bit of a head start from that point of view.”