The "forced break" that was key to Ricciardo's Monza excellence

OPINION: Daniel Ricciardo has long been considered one of Formula 1's elite drivers. But his struggles at McLaren since switching from Renault for 2021 have been painful to watch at times. Yet he's recovered to banish those memories with a famous Monza win – built on a critically important foundation

Alex Kalinauckas Sep 14, 2021, 1:16 PM

He stood alone in the gathering darkness. All his peers had long since departed, off to debrief and then enjoy an early night ahead of Formula 1's second sprint race experience, or perhaps sample what delights of Monza and Milan they could within the current COVID restrictions.

But Daniel Ricciardo was still chatting away – his face mask masking that famous smile. From afar, it wasn't possible to detect that he was outlining the "internal rage" he was feeling at qualifying just 0.029s adrift of Red Bull's Max Verstappen third place and being 0.006s behind teammate Lando Norris.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.