Ricciardo heading the way of Fittipaldi and Villeneuve?

Even with the best car on the grid in the RB14, Ricciardo, like his teammate Max Verstappen, lacks the horses to make it really count, their real chances coming only at tracks where the power deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari is not a big factor.

Further back than that are the Renault team, way off the benchmark pace and the reality that the big smiling Australian will walk into next year.

Fellow countryman Mark Webber pointed out in a recent interview, "We'll all have to sit back and watch, but the move is under a little bit of heat. It has to work for him."

"Is it a step back? He knows in the short term it's going to be. He'll be behind Red Bull next year. He's banking on the long-term there."

History has not been kind to Formula 1 drivers who ditched a winning team for start-up or midfield outfit.

In the early seventies, Brazilian legend Fittipaldi was one of the hot shots of Formula 1. In 1972 he won his first world title driving for Lotus, and a couple of years later won the 1974 championship in his first year as a McLaren driver.

At the end of 1975, the Brazilian decided to quit McLaren after finishing second in the championship behind Ferrari's Niki Lauda. Teddy Mayer's Marlboro backed team was at the height of its powers in Formula 1 at the time.

Nevertheless, Fittipaldi shocked the paddock to join his brother's Copersucar team, a predominantly Brazilian F1 effort in the top flight. It proved to be a very bad call. In the five seasons thereafter he only visited the F1 podium on two occasions, for a second place at the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix and third at Long Beach in 1980.

He did return to racing in 1984, in the USA, enjoying an impressive Indycar career where he won a title and two Indy 500 races.

Ironically, McLaren went on to win the F1 title with James Hunt in 1976, the year after Fittipaldi departed the team for Copersucar.

Another such tale is that of Jacques Villeneuve, in 1998, a year after winning his one and only F1 title, he departed Williams to join BAR - at the time the Grove outfit were a powerhouse in Formula 1 while the Lucky Strike backed outfit was a start-up headed by his manager and friend Craig Pollock.

After finishing fifth in the 1998 championship, Villeneuve's decision to ditch Williams for BAR in 1999 was an immediate disaster with the Canadian retiring from 12 of the 16 races that year.

Consider that at the time Villeneuve could have had a McLaren drive and possibly even a Ferrari seat had he not been lured away to the Pollock led project.

Stats show that the call was a very bad one from which he never recovered. Two third-place podium finishes in five years with the team told the sad tale of bad decision making.

At least Fittipaldi and Villeneuve are F1 world champions, that accolade still eludes Ricciardo who may look back in history and hope that his career does not nose-dive because of bad judgement and ill-timed decision.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/10/12/webber-renault-move-has-to-work-for-ricciardo/