He was the master of the big, bold overtake, but there was one issue the stopped the Australian from being world champion.
. His eight wins and 32 podiums are certainly fine achievements, but his career tailed off enormously in the past few years.
Where did it all go wrong? Some people would point towards the decision to leave a winning Red Bull team for Renault at the end of 2018 as the start of his downfall, but I disagree. I think the logic was solid. The big crossroads in Ricciardo’s career was not his departure from Red Bull but in fact the arrival of Max Verstappen to that team.
From 2016-18 their records were similar – 590 points to 608 and five wins to four in Verstappen’s favour – but the Dutchman’s ascent to becoming the No 1 driver in reality if not yet on paper was clear.Perhaps Ricciardo also lost a bit of that hunger that he had in those early Red Bull years as Verstappen took his place as the next big thing in Christian Horner and Helmut Marko’s eyes.
Although not at Red Bull’s level, Ricciardo achieved some good results in his second year with the team, finishing fifth in the championship and securing two podiums.
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