Daniel Ricciardo Channels Frustration to Claim 2016 Monaco GP Pole Position
Almost two years after their last victory, Red Bull were winners again on May 15 as Max Verstappen sprayed champagne from the top step of the Spanish Grand Prix podium.
But as one driver revelled in producing a much-needed feel-good story for Formula One, the other was finding it difficult to balance collective joy with personal dissatisfaction.
While his colleagues fought between themselves to catch stray droplets of bubbly falling from the skies, Daniel Ricciardo was out the back, having failed to even make the top three in a race he once seemed likely to win.
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That infectious smile of his remained, yet behind it was a driver unable to comprehend how his side of the garage—a group of people who were always there to capitalise on Mercedes' mistakes throughout his breakthrough season in 2014—had managed to throw "the win away."
"It's not hard to see Max on the podium but it's hard for me to not be on the podium, that's the biggest disappointment from today," he said, per Motorsport.com's Darshan Chokhani, explaining the team's decision to switch him to a three-stop tyre strategy came "too late" and "didn't make sense" in any case.
Ricciardo's mood probably wasn't improved by the lack of sympathy from Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. Horner told Motorsport.com's Andrew van Leeuwen the strategy change may not have had such a detrimental effect on his race had Ricciardo overtaken fellow three stopper Sebastian Vettel "a little earlier."
And almost a week later, Ricciardo was still complaining about the way his chances of victory slipped away, using the medium of Red Bull's Monaco Grand Prix preview video—which, by definition, is all about looking toward the future—to ponder the events of the past.
Per Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, F1's eternal optimist admitted it wasn't "easy to move on," revealing he was still waking up wondering what might have happened had he completed that brave pass on Vettel at Turn 1 and reliving the moment both his rear-left tyre and demeanour deflated on the penultimate lap.
With Verstappen making an instant impact and Ricciardo's race ending in such farcical fashion, the Spanish GP had the potential to become a turning point in the latter's career as a popular Aussie—not for the first time in the history of Red Bull—found himself upstaged by a younger, record-breaking team-mate.
His struggles in healing the scars of Spain, as well as the wounds of China and Russia, meant Ricciardo's chances of success in Monaco—having successfully made it through a political minefield to be given Renault's upgraded power unit—were bound to depend on his ability to recover from that disappointment.
Now under serious pressure for the first time as a Red Bull driver and insulted that he was not the one with the honour of ending the team's longest winless run in seven years, would he overdrive in his efforts to compensate for those missed opportunities?
Or would he summon the so-called "Aussie grit" made famous by his predecessor, Mark Webber, who with two victories was something of a specialist around the tight and twisty streets of Monte Carlo?
The tone was set as early as the opening free-practice session on Thursday morning, when Mr. Nice Guy's change of attitude was immediately noticeable, with Ricciardo almost channelling the frustration of Spain to operate with more aggression, flamboyance and determination than ever before.
Kimi Raikkonen's error of holding up the No. 3 car in the final sector led to Ricciardo waving his middle finger in the 2007 world champion's general direction at La Rascasse little more than 30 minutes into the most insignificant session of a grand prix weekend.
When he ended FP2 at the top of the time sheets by a margin of 0.6 seconds and was asked how that gap could be divided between the performance of the chassis, the engine and the driver, Ricciardo told Sky Sports' television coverage it was "99.9 per cent" down to him.
"That’s P1 and pole position at the #MonacoGP for @DanielRicciardo! His first pole position in #F1! pic.twitter.com/wKaJlRF0iK
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) May 28, 2016"
The quip was delivered in typical, charming fashion but with the confidence of someone increasingly at home with the most challenging circuit of them all.
Such was his pace on Thursday that Ricciardo arguably entered qualifying as the favourite for pole position, and his decisive lap in the final segment—described by Horner as "dynamite," per Sky Sports' Matt Morlidge—was the act of a driver prepared to end the session in the barrier for the sake of ending it on pole.
Even then, having found the balance between risk and reward, he persevered with his new approach.
He roared over pit-to-car radio in celebration, nodded self-approvingly when it was noted he had secured his maiden F1 pole in the FIA press conference and again joked his "big Australian balls" were the main reason behind his performance.
But balls, of course, are nothing without brains, and Red Bull's strategic masterstroke of forcing Ricciardo to complete his fastest Q2 lap on super-soft tyres should magnify his advantage over Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, who will both start the race on the less durable ultra-softs.
After letting their driver down in Spain, the team have given Ricciardo the perfect platform to claim the victory his performances in the opening months of 2016 deserve.
And to provide further proof there is plenty of steel behind the smile.
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