Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo may have won a Grand Prix in 2021 but that wasn’t enough for him to be included on a prestigious F1 list.
Daniel Ricciardo has been snubbed by Formula One’s team bosses on their list of the top 10 drivers of season 2021.
At the conclusion of every season, the 10 team principals nominate who they believe were the best drivers of the year, and the Australian was a notable absentee from this year’s list.
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Drivers are awarded points based on F1’s scoring system — 25 for first place down to one point for 10th.
Newly-crowned world champion Max Verstappen (213 points) was voted the best driver on the grid by the team principals, 21 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton (192).
McLaren’s Lando Norris (110) came in third but his teammate Ricciardo didn’t make the cut, in an intriguing sign of how he is rated in the paddock.
Ricciardo finished eighth in the drivers championship in 2021, which saw him claim a droughtbreaking victory at the Italian Grand Prix and a handful of top-five finishes during a mixed first year with McLaren.
However, the team principals opted to include Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, George Russell and Esteban Ocon in the top 10 — all of whom finished below Ricciardo in the drivers standings.
Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris, Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Gasly, Russell, Valtteri Bottas and Ocon were voted the 10 best drivers in that order.
The 10 team principals involved in voting this year were Mattia Binotto, Jost Capito, Christian Horner, Laurent Rossi, Andreas Seidl, Guenther Steiner, Otmar Szafnauer, Franz Tost, Fred Vasseur and Toto Wolff.
Ricciardo was also omitted from the list of the top 10 drivers in 2021 as voted by the drivers themselves.
The only difference to the team principals’ list was Haas rookie Mick Schumacher was included by the drivers in favour of Bottas.
Ricciardo is contracted with McLaren in 2023 and will be hoping he can discover more consistent form next year when new F1 regulations designed to level the playing field between the teams are introduced.
The 32-year-old was harsh in his self-assessment of his season and is aiming to improve his performance in qualifying to ensure he starts races further up the grid.
“Started not great, got better, but still with some dips,” Ricciardo told Autosport about his season.
“Definitely happier with the second half. But there’s still some things to work on, so I’m not, like, overwhelmed with it.
“Let’s say I made a step, but clearly I still need to make another one next year to get where I want to be, and probably more on Saturdays (in qualifying) just to give me that track position for Sunday (grands prix) and keep me out of a little bit more of a mess. So that’s what I’ll work on.”
Originally published as Daniel Ricciardo snubbed by F1 team bosses in top 10 drivers list
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