You're one of the most clueless people I've experienced on the web. You and a few of the deranged Hamilton fanboys you see on the F1 fb page.

There's no underserved sense of entitlement. Ricciardo is a driver of the highest calibre, and everyone knows that. He's either the best or marginally the 2nd best driver overall since the turbos have come out (Hamilton has had his stats padded due to having a better car than him for all that time). That's what bother you about him, he's a genuine threat had he been in the same car as Hamilton (It must be hard having to bite your tongue over Bottas atm?)

As far as knowing he could live with Verstappen any longer, that's more horse ****. (It may be difficult living with a team favouring the Verstappen though?)

Fun fact about 2018. In the races they both finished, so that's accounting for mechanical problems and dnfs through driver error (their own or at the effect of others), Ricciardo outscored Verstappen 158-141.

You heard MB were willing to take him? That's BS as well, because they weren't getting rid of Bottas regardless of how his performances were perceived last year.

Quote Originally Posted by Nitrodaze View Post
I watched a youtube podcast recently that suggested that Ricciado was duped into signing for Renault. One could have made the same statement about Hamilton's first year at Mercedes. Though, That particular Mercedes car was showing more signs of a growth spur compared to the 2019 Renault car. At the moment, Renault is the laughing stock of the paddock with their engine reliability issues and chassis that is not looking like it has made the apropriate step forward to be in that coveted fourth best team position.

The teams that we thought should be in that position are also struggling with one thing or the other. Haas for instance have a Tyre gremlin that seem to come and go on race day. Torro Ross is not consistent for some reason. And Alfa Romeo, seem to be having dealing with some sort of issue as well. As it stands at the moment, Mclaren has stepped up to the fourth place position. But can they hang on to it till Abu Dhabi?
Ricciardo was duped into signing for a factory team and be the one of the highest paid drivers? I don't think so.

No one could've made the same statement about MB. They were the only ones that had built a hybrid turbo and were always going to be the best team (Because of that, they were also going to stop supporting McLaren). Even if F1 stuch with the normally aspirated engines, they would've been challenging for the title in 2014.