Jul.12 - Daniel Ricciardo may be changing his tune about e-sports.

A year ago, before switching to McLaren, the highly regarded Australian driver said of the growing trend for at-home, online racing: "I'll leave that to the younger generations."

One of those younger, e-sports-savvy drivers is Ricciardo's 21-year-old McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who is easily outpacing his decade-older rival in 2021.

When asked if he might therefore change his mind about the benefits of home simulators, Ricciardo admitted: "I have been thinking about it.

"At the beginning I always said I didn't want one at home because I have better things to do on the weekends off," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

"But I don't want to be narrow-minded either. Maybe it really helps, but on the other hand maybe you develop bad habits.

"But Max, Lando and Charles are also very active with it so maybe it brings something after all. It's still not my thing, but I can't ignore it," Ricciardo added.

What is clear is that Ricciardo's problems with his 2021 car are not going to be quickly solved with developments.

"We simply need all the resources of the team to be getting ready for next year now," team boss Andreas Seidl told RTL.


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6 F1 Fan comments on “Ricciardo can't afford to ignore race simulator any more

    • shroppyfly

      im pretty sure they are more sophisticated then a ps5 from what ive seen . but im sure someone else knows more than us both on this, has anyone seen my nokia 3110 ?

  1. ReallyOldRacer

    Yeah, let's do e-racing and get embarrassed by a 12 yr old in his basement whose daddy bought him the best setup in the business. We can train for the next pandemic. Uh, I think that the subject here is probably the factory simulator, not a PS5, whatever that is.

  2. f1award

    The body of the story talks of e-sports but the headline states DR ignores race simulators, I'd be amazed if DR doesn't use McLarens 'real' race simulator.

  3. Jack Crawdaddy

    Mclaren has clearly been watching it's penniesand has been under financial duress. It has also had debt finance from a financial institution which is all about the bottom line. I think we need to consider the possibility that Mclaren have been restricted in supporting Ricciardo to podiums by its financiers (not it's investors) because his contractual arrangements and greater part of his total remuneration are linked to podiums.

    McLaren are already in third place in the championship, which is the best possible outcome. Why would their financiers support paying 400,000 euros to Daniel Ricciardo for podiums, when they can achieve their maximum prize money by having him score points at 5th, 6th etc, without the cost of his podium bonuses. It would be different if Lando wasn't doing so well, because they would need DR on the podium.

    The good news is that now that they have secured 650 euros in investment and sold the real-estate, next year could see McLaren
    In a fight for he title, with DR fully supported and Lando at full strength. And this weekend suddenly DR and Lando are within 2/100ths of a second in qualifying.

    As fans we don't get to see the full financial and commercial influences. But as a retired motorsport driver manager I can say that I have seen and experienced first hand scenarios like that I have described.

    Go DR. You are a true champion, who has been too affected by non racing agendas at Red Bull, Renault and now McLaren. But I think it's all about to change quite suddenly.

  4. Jack Crawdaddy

    Mclaren has clearly been watching it's penniesand has been under financial duress. It has also had debt finance from a financial institution which is all about the bottom line. I think we need to consider the possibility that Mclaren have been restricted in supporting Ricciardo to podiums by its financiers (not it's investors) because his contractual arrangements and greater part of his total remuneration are linked to podiums.

    McLaren are already in third place in the championship, which is the best possible outcome. Why would their financiers support paying 400,000 euros to Daniel Ricciardo for podiums, when they can achieve their maximum prize money by having him score points at 5th, 6th etc, without the cost of his podium bonuses. It would be different if Lando wasn't doing so well, because they would need DR on the podium to secure 3rd.

    The good news is that now that they have secured 650 million euros in investment and sold the real-estate, next year could see McLaren
    in a fight for he title, with DR fully supported and Lando at full strength. And this weekend suddenly DR and Lando are within 2/100ths of a second in qualifying.

    As fans we don't get to see the full financial and commercial influences. But as a retired motorsport driver manager I can say that I have seen and experienced first hand scenarios like that I have described.

    Go DR. You are a true champion, who has been too affected by non racing agendas at Red Bull, Renault and now McLaren. But I think it's all about to change quite suddenly.


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