Hill: It is not known whether Ricciardo will return to his former speed

This season is arguably the worst season of Daniel Ricciardo’s career and there’s a good chance the smiling Australian won’t be racing in Formula 1 next year. At McLaren, he will be replaced by Oscar Piastri, and while there are still vacancies in several teams, Ricciardo is unlikely to be among the main contenders for these places.

Rumor has it that he may miss the season and become reserve driver for Mercedes in the hopes that in 2024 there will be new options to continue his career.

For the 16 stages of the season that took place, Daniel earned just 19 points and is on the 14th line of the personal standings, while Lando Norris, his McLaren teammate, has 88 points and he is 7th in the championship standings.

The slowdown is more than noticeable and Formula 1 teams are probably wondering if Ricciardo has lost his former speed, says Damon Hill, 1996 world champion and now an expert on Sky Sports.

“Daniel is a very popular figure in our sport, he always radiates fun, smiles and everything, but now something is definitely going wrong,” said Hill. “It’s not just about his speed at McLaren, it’s also about the tactics he chose to get behind the wheel of a competitive car.

He has clearly made some mistakes and we can only hope that he can interest other teams, and we will still see him among the leaders. If he becomes more reserved, then I think there will also be a certain logic in that.

In any case, he will continue to work with the top team, even if he is sitting on the bench waiting for the right opportunity. He will have access to information and in the future he could theoretically be useful to another team.

But all the leaders of all the teams will look at him and think, “Where has his speed gone? Will she return to him? And that’s a big question that we don’t know the answer to.”