+ for posterity I hope people know how inextricably linked McLaren's passive and active malice is to the erasure of Daniel's credentials in the public domain. he was seldom defended last year. And never this year.
On November 3rd 2020, 58 days before Daniel became a McLaren driver, Ross Brawn, F1's managing director, dedicated part of his last column of the year to Daniel saying “Daniel Ricciardo is a brilliant driver, and one of the very best in Formula1 [...]I hope McLaren can give Daniel a car he deserves next season. He’s a great member of the F1 fraternity.” And reiterated that Daniel is a championship contender whose never been in a contending car
He's tied for second place with Lewis for most wins starting outside the top 3. For reference, first is Alonso and Raikkonen, he's tied with Lewis for second and 3rd is Schumacher. 4th is Jenson Button. All champions while he's never been in a championship contending car
McLaren letting the *Daniel is not a very adaptable driver* narrative run rampant when in his supposed "bad" first year at Renault in 2019, he ran out the incumbent driver and produced unimpressive feats like going from 20th to 4th on two occasions.
Broke Renault's 10 year podium drought. Twice.
People genuinely running with that bizarre conspiracy that Daniel is poor in the technical realm of F1 when Cyril, who had no reason to defend or protect Daniel after he announced his departure said that the technical breakthrough Renault had was solely Daniel's doing and the only reason they were even able to compete for 3rd in the championship + "Daniel will be competing with a stronger team next year thanks to his own efforts"
The first driver in 8 years to score multiple fast laps without being part of a top 3 team, a record previously held by Raikkonen
In 2019 Nico Rosberg revealing that during briefings Mercedes drivers would ask not to be released around Daniel after pitting because if he's in front of you he's not going to let you through and if he's behind you he's overtaking you.
Helmut Marko, known cunt and crackhead, admitting that the only time they've had 2 drivers matched in performance at Red Bull was during the Ricciardo-Verstappen line up.
People saying he was too arrogant and egotistical (¿¿¿) to gel with the team like. When was the last fucking time a driver went to another teams garage to apologise to another driver's mechanics for a racing incident he was NOT penalised for, during a wet session, where Carlos Sainz himself said Daniel couldn't have changed the outcome if he tried.
In his first year in Red Bull, during the most radical regulation change in recent f1 history, he was the only driver besides mercedes to win a race. He won 3 races.
This is Daniel's calibre, and no amount of historical romanticism from McLaren or their paid shills will ever change that.
