Daniel Ricciardo has reflected on some of the biggest highs and lows in Formula 1, including his love/hate relationship with the Monaco Grand Prix.
During his days at Red Bull, the Australian became known for his all-out approach on the streets of Monte Carlo, with two of his three poles coming at the track.
The first came in 2016 as he ended Mercedes’ dominance in qualifying that year and on a soggy Sunday, appeared to have it under control out front.
When the track had dried enough for slicks though, Red Bull was not ready with his tyres in the pitlane and the delayed stop allowed Lewis Hamilton to get ahead, with Ricciardo unable to find a way back past despite being the quicker man.
“Even four years on, I remember this day in so much detail, it’s like a video in my mind,” he wrote, describing Monaco 2016 as his “most angry” moment in his latest Dan’s Diary social media post.
“I can picture myself driving through the corner before the tunnel after THAT pit stop and I was so angry.
“I wouldn’t have minded having a mechanical so I didn’t finish, I didn’t want to talk to anyone afterwards, I certainly didn’t want any sympathy… it was just pure rage.
“I remember standing on the podium with Lewis, he’d won a race that I had under control… I just didn’t want to be there.
“[But then] I had a moment of clarity in the media pen afterwards, where I thought that if finishing second at Monaco is the worst day in my life, then I should probably wake up, so that was when the anger started to turn into disappointment.”
Two years later though, having again beaten Mercedes to pole in qualifying, Ricciardo overcame the loss of his MGU-K in the race to finally claim what remains his most recent F1 win to date.
“I’m not going to lie, Monaco 2016 haunted me for two years,” he admitted. “Then to not put a foot wrong in 2018 and thinking the win would slip away from me again…
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“With Monaco, if you hold the lead into the first corner from pole, it’s yours to lose in a way, the race is in your hands, but 2018 was a different level of stress simply because of what had happened there in ’16.
“The main feeling was sheer relief that this time I didn’t have it taken from me. I enjoyed it more the days after the Sunday because I was just burned out. It was a massive exhale than anything else.”
Of course, the famous image of that day comes post-race with Ricciardo belly-flopping into the pool on Red Bull’s energy station.
And the story of his Monaco redemption is arguably one of the most dramatic in F1 in recent years.