According to a RacingNews365 report, Daniel Ricciardo has shared the advice he would give Oscar Piastri before his countryman makes his Formula 1 debut by taking his place at McLaren.
Ricciardo has struggled since joining McLaren in 2021. In August, it was revealed that the team and the Australian had collectively agreed to end his multi-year contract abruptly, which would cause him to leave the team at the end of 2022.
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A conflict over his services led to Piastri’s decision to leave Alpine and join the Woking-based team as Lando Norris’ teammate, which was confirmed shortly after Ricciardo was fired.
The Red Bull team, with which Ricciardo achieved seven of his eight Formula 1 victories, offered him the third driver position when he was denied a spot on the grid for the 2023 season.
Ricciardo has given Piastri some advice even though he won’t get the chance to race against him in the following season. In Ricciardo’s opinion, Piastri would do well to take each race as it comes.
In response to the Beyond The Grid podcast’s question about an advise for Piastri, Ricciardo said: “I think just go out and drive. I know that sounds like a really lazy response, but it’s just… go out and drive. Learn, be a sponge, but drive.”
“Don’t set the bar too high for yourself. If you end up doing better than maybe what you thought, awesome, but just take it race by race. As long as you’re learning and you feel you’re improving every race, then I think that’s all you can kind of ask for yourself.”
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In response to a question on whether McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl and race engineer Tom Stallard, who was also Ricciardo’s former engineer, are the best candidates to develop Piastri’s skill, Ricciardo endorsed them.
He said: “I think so, I think also, even if we didn’t quite get it right from my side with McLaren, I think they still would have learned a bunch from our two years, and maybe [learned from] things where we deviated or went a little wrong or sideways, whatever.”
“So I think all that knowledge can be passed on to Oscar. I would like to think they would kind of have a little bit of a head start from that point of view.”