Former Renault F1 team boss Cyril Abiteboul has accused Daniel Ricciardo, who left the team at the end of the 2020 season, of being “selfish”. And Ricciardo claims he left both Renault and McLaren too soon, believing the Australian has a habit of making poor career choices.
Ricciardo shocked the F1 world in the summer of 2018 by leaving Red Bull, where he had been winning races, and signing a lucrative contract with midfielder Renault.
Ricciardo, who had a challenging first season with Renault in 2019, has already scored two podium finishes for Renault in the pandemic-affected 2020 campaign that began after signing a contract with McLaren.
Despite ending McLaren’s nine-year win drought at Monza in 2021, Ricciardo struggled for much of his time with the team before agreeing to a release from his contract at the end of last year. McLaren has since emerged as the closest challenger to 2023 world champion Red Bull.
Abiteboul was furious at Ricciardo’s decision to leave Renault before the start of his second season with the team, and reflected on the incident on the Dans La Boite a Gants podcast.
“He made the decision in April or May. The world stopped and he didn’t know how he was going to get back on the track or if he was going to get back on the track,” Abiteboul said.
“Actually, I think this is a very quick decision and a little bit selfish, because at the end of the day, the team only has one chance. It is true that there are.”
Asked if he took Ricciardo’s decision personally, Abiteboul said: “Of course, because I knew it was a personal rejection. I took it completely personally. I accepted it. I didn’t know what the outcome would be. ” he said.
Abiteboul said Ricciardo, used to winning with Red Bull, had struggled to adapt to the midfield car in his first year at Renault, and after both drivers ran the Escape Road in Baku. He mentioned the mistake-filled race in which he rear-ended Daniil Kvyat.
“The team was in the process of building itself and organizing itself. We were progressing, but it meant we weren’t at the level of Red Bull. He comes from Red Bull in a standard environment, so there was inevitably a sense of relegation. There was,” he said.
“It was psychologically difficult for him. The 2019 Baku Grand Prix was really bad, he made mistake after mistake. In short, he was completely out of his depth and , it was complicated for us as well.”
“We never expected the situation to be this difficult in 2019, and conversely, in 2020, the global pandemic of the new coronavirus hindered us, and in the middle of that, he decided to terminate his contract at the end of the year. I didn’t think it would happen. I never thought something like that would happen.”
“And even though I don’t think 2020 was that good of a year, I still managed to get a podium and if I had made a few fewer mistakes I could have been third in the standings.”
“Then, at some point, you have to bounce back. And it’s complicated because we issue a very cold, very harsh press release that conveys that sentiment. What’s more, Netflix probably doesn’t have any programs available at that time. They must have been filming, so they conveyed the story in a different way afterwards.”
“The season didn’t go at all as we had imagined, but it turned out much better than we expected. But at the same time, we wanted to do something different. Fernando Alonso to replace Ricciardo. I made a contract with
“I’m switching to something else completely. I don’t think we’ve had the slightest chance to discuss whether[Ricardo]regrets it, whether we regret it… In any case, I’m gone. Then I’m not there anymore.”
“I don’t think Ricciardo could have imagined that the car would progress this much, and neither could we. I understand his strategy. McLaren spent a bit of money to get him, but… It’s part of the game. Ricciardo always has timing issues. He left us too soon and he left McLaren too soon.”
Abiteboul, who retired from Renault’s team principal at the end of 2020, said that Renault had signed an excellent driver like Ricciardo too early in its development as a team, and that it had exposed their position as a result. I admitted that it had happened.
“Even if I couldn’t tell him, deep down I knew it was too soon,” Abiteboul said of the day he reached a deal with Ricciardo in 2018.
“That night, my partner and I went to our favorite restaurant in Marseille and I said to her, ‘Let’s toast to two things tonight.’ One, we had signed Ricciardo, who is a great driver. Two. The fact is that you will be fired in two years.”
“Signing a two-year contract, which ultimately highlights the fact that the team is not yet at the level it needs to be, could potentially be interpreted as a bad decision. Because I knew something.”
“I still have mixed feelings today, but on the other hand, my expectations were met.”
Abiteboul is currently team principal for Hyundai’s World Rally Championship operations, with the South Korean manufacturer winning two events in 2023 in Italy and Central Europe. He was also appointed to lead Hyundai following the tragic death of Irish driver Craig Breen, who was killed in a test accident in Croatia in April.
Last month, Abiteboul announced the acquisition of 2019 world champion Ott Tänak, who will return to Hyundai in 2024 after a three-year stint from 2020 to 2022.
Category: F1 / Daniel Ricardo
2023-11-15 09:34:54
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