What the Monaco Grand Prix means to Daniel Ricciardo

Thursday ahead of the Miami Grand Prix Daniel Ricciardo met with the media, including SB Nation, to talk about his season so far, the upcoming race in Miami, and more. But among the topics discussed that morning was a race that means so much to Ricciardo, and the entire Formula 1 world.

The race that awaits us this week.

Following an emotional week in Imola F1 heads to its crown jewel, the Monaco Grand Prix. It is a race that Ricciardo can count among his eight F1 wins, as the driver conquered the field, and the Monte Carlo streets, back in 2018. As Ricciardo described the Monaco Grand Prix recently, it is an event that makes even the drivers stop to appreciate what they have.

“Well, my immediate answer is yes, because I think of I think of qualifying,” said Ricciardo when asked in Miami about how special Monaco is.

“I think of the event itself as a driver, the feeling of being in Monaco, you feel like ... I don’t want this to sound like, I don’t know if materialistic is the word, but you feel like a superstar,” added Ricciardo.

Ricciardo continued on to say that as a driver, the Monaco Grand Prix is a moment where you have to stop and pinch yourself, and remember that what you get to do is something pretty special

“But it’s the one place where you’re like, ‘I’m doing something really awesome.’ And if you’re not appreciating it, it’s a place where you really appreciate the job you have,” added Ricciardo.

“There’s like an aura just that surrounds that event, that race. Saturday qualifying in Monaco is one of the most intense feelings we get as a driver,” continued Ricciardo. “Albeit Sunday, yeah, maybe it’s a little different. Maybe Sunday still isn’t perfect by any means. The event and the Saturday I think still give it enough.”

Ricciardo has experienced both highs, and lows, in the Monaco Grand Prix. He put his Red Bull on pole position for the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix and was running up front in the race when he came into the pits on Lap 32. There was just one problem.

The team was not ready for him.

The crew in the garage scurried into action, but the damage was done. Ricciardo came back onto the Monte Carlo streets in second behind Lewis Hamilton, and that is where he finished.

Writing years later, Ricciardo outlined just how tough that day was for him.

“Even four years on, I remember this day in so much detail, it’s like a video in my mind. I can picture myself driving through the corner before the tunnel after THAT pit stop and I was so angry. I wouldn’t have minded having a mechanical so I didn’t finish, I didn’t want to talk to anyone afterwards, I certainly didn’t want any sympathy ... it was just pure rage,” wrote Ricciardo in 2020 on social media.

“I remember standing on the podium with Lewis, he’d won a race that I had under control ... I just didn’t want to be there.”

Redemption came two years later. In the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix Ricciardo qualified on pole again, but before the halfway point he reported to the team a loss of power. His RB14 had experienced a power failure in the MGU-K, leaving him with reduced horsepower and just six functioning gears.

It was enough, as he managed to hold off a charge from Sebastian Vettel to take the checkered flag, and some redemption.

“I’m not going to lie, Monaco 2016 haunted me for two years, and then to not put a foot wrong in 2018 and thinking the win would slip away from me again ... With Monaco, if you hold the lead into the first corner from pole, it’s yours to lose in a way. The race is in your hands. But 2018 was a different level of stress simply because of what had happened there in ‘16,” wrote Ricciardo years later. “The main feeling was sheer relief that this time I didn’t have it taken from me.”

Ricciardo celebrated that win in quintessential Ricciardo fashion, with a swan dive into the pool:

Will we see another swan dive this week?

That may be unlikely, but we will see in Ricciardo — and likely the rest of the grid — is a driver appreciating just how special the Monaco Grand Prix is.