Ricciardo hopes new F1 rules will allow bolder overtakes

In recent seasons – most notably during his time as a Red Bull racer – Ricciardo forged a reputation as one of F1’s best overtakers with a series of bold passes, often very late on approach to corners or from far behind another car.  

F1 intends the switch to a ground effect-dominated formula to allow cars to run closely together this year – something that was a problem during successive design cycles in the championship’s modern era, but was particularly pronounced when F1 moved to the ultra-fast, downforce-laden machines produced between 2017 and 2021. 

When asked if the new cars being able to follow closely – and therefore make passing easier because the gaps between the cars are reduced – might dilute his overtaking strength, Riccardo replied: “Hopefully it increases it!  

“In years past, for sure I’ve still made some moves, but I haven’t like consistently every race been the guy doing the best move 20 times a year.  

“And it’s kind of due to how the cars were at times – they were so fast, you braked so late and it was so hard to get close to another car. So, to kind of pull off moves was just tricky.  

“So now, if this allows us to be closer and have a little bit more of a braking zone, I hope we have to brake a little bit earlier in these cars and buy ourselves a bit more distance to work with.  

"I think that will promote not only more overtaking but more chance for the big D.R.I.C.C to come back!” 

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Ricciardo is heading into his second year with McLaren after switching from Renault – two years after leaving Red Bull at the end of 2018. 

He struggled to gel with the British team’s final car built under the