Jones: We've seen Ricciardo's best days, he has to raise his game

Ricciardo's inexplicable downfall is well told. Opting for the money offered, he ditched Red Bull to move to Renault and from then on his career and form have slid alarmingly. More so at McLaren where he arrived with great expectations, only to be blown away by Lando Norris.

By most accounts, McLaren tried everything to make the eight-time Grand Prix life comfortable at Woking, but ultimately they delivered the greatest insult by paying him off to make room for another Aussie, Oscar Piastri and the rest is history.

Piastri lit up the F1 scene and continues to be one of the hottest young prospects on the grid. In contrast, Ricciardo did the F1 version of The Prodigal Son, returning to the Red Bull junior team now known awkwardly as VCARB.

From the outset, Ricciardo made it clear he covets Sergio Perez's seat alongside Max Verstappen. But with Adrian Newey and and his Red Bull esign team have produced the RB20 masterpiece, which the Mexican veteran is finding more to his liking. Hence, one-two in the opening races has consolidated his seat.

At the same time, Ricciardo's have been such (even last year) that replacing Checo is extremely unlikely. Folly actually, as on current form the big smiling Aussie (grinning less these days) will be lucky to see out his year with VCARB.

Speaking to Herald Sun, 1980 F1 World Champion, Jones has a warning for Ricciardo: “Bad luck, or otherwise, I’m sure Daniel would like to have had better results than what he has had.

“At the end of the day, we can’t be blaming the car all the time, which has been a bit of a tendency in the past. I would love to see Daniel go extremely well in Melbourne, I would like to see Daniel go extremely well period.

“But I just think that his luck is going to have to change or he is going to have to lift his game if he has got any chance of getting back in that Red Bull team or getting back into a more competitive car.

“He is treading water. He really needs to have some very good results and put up a good show, he can’t be dwelling down where he is. I hate to say it, but I think we have seen the best days from him. He has had his bum in a few decent cars, irrespective of what people say.

“I would love him to become super competitive and be up there challenging in the points, but I just think that maybe a couple of things have got to change before we see that," ventured Jones

“The Alpine or the McLaren, the car that Daniel is in right now… at the end of the day he has got to start beating his teammate for a start," ventured 77-year-old Jones.

Beating Tsunoda should be a cinch for most top drivers. The Japanese 23-year-old, in his fourth full season in F1, is hardly a wothy benchmark and has rarely stunned or even been consistently impressive. He is in a drive with VCARB until the end of this season. With Honda out of the picture, how long will he remain in F1?

If Ricciardo struggles to beat Tsunoda. The latter outqualifying his team 2-0 so far this year. In the ten races they have been paired at VCARB (last year AlphaTauri) the score in Qualy is currently 7-3 and in Races it's 6-4 in favour of Tsunoda.

For a driver targeting a move to Red Bull, where his former teammate Verstappen is in the best form of his career and improving all the time, it is safe to assume Ricciardo would be mauled by the Dutch ace.

Inevitably questions are being asked of him. But it's bleak when even your home fans have lost faith, as F1 legend Alan Jones has.

The Australian Grand Prix, Round 3 of the 2024 F1 World Championship takes place in Melrbourne this weekend, 22 to 24 March, at Albert Park.