Daniel Ricciardo suffers abysmal qualifying result in Bahrain

Something is clearly going on at Daniel Ricciardo’s team after the Australian emerged as the biggest disappointment from qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo had a shocker. Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images.

Daniel Ricciardo has suffered a nightmare day in the first qualifying session of 2022, finishing 18th on the time sheets.

The Aussie star failed to make it to the second qualifying session at the Bahrain Grand Prix — and his McLaren team appears to have no answers at the moment.

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Ricciardo had also struggled in the practice sessions earlier this week, but the racing world now knows McLaren wasn’t hiding anything as the rest of the Formula 1 grid showed its raw pace for the first time on Sunday morning.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start Monday morning’s race from pole ahead of Max Verstappen and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz.

Lewis Hamilton was only good enough to finish fifth in the third and final qualifying session.

At the other end of the grid, the big story was McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo was never in the hunt. Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images.

Even Lando Norris was only good enough to finish 13th overall and failed to get his MCL36 into the third qualifying session. The team finished fourth in the 2021 standings.

It was the first time Ricciardo has ever been out-qualified by a teammate in Bahrain.

He was 0.7 seconds behind Norris and 1.4 seconds slower than Leclerc.

Ricciardo, who missed last weekend’s final testing event as a result of contracting Covid-19, said he was “obviously disappointed, but not too surprised”.

“It’s been a tough weekend so far, unfortunately,” he said.

“Last time I drove in Barcelona, we left pretty optimistic but, we’ve got new kinds of challenges here this weekend. With the lost time last week, trying to get up to speed, it proved trickier than I hoped.

The 32-year-old’s preparation was further disrupted by a technical problem that kept him in the garage for parts of practice.

It doesn’t make his qualifying result any easier to accept.

“The pressure is on Daniel Ricciardo,” Sky Sports commentator David Croft said.

“It is nowhere near where he would have expected to be. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for him and McLaren. This is the big story isn’t it.”

Formula 1 guru Martin Brundle also said: “I don’t think it could get any worse for him”.

Forbes reporter Maury Brown posted on Twitter he was “still stunned about McLaren”.

Formula 1 reporter Byron Young described Ricciardo’s performance as “dreadful”.

McLaren boss Andreas Seidl admitted the team has to accept the result.

“I think we just saw the result of everything that happened in the last seven, eight days,” Seidl told Sky Sports.

“I think he was on the back foot from the beginning going into this weekend with missing out on the test last week, then he lost additional laps yesterday with the water leak that we had and therefore it was always a difficult challenge for him today.

“In addition, we just struggled really all weekend so far here with the pace of the car. I think also that’s a result from all the fire-fighting we’ve had to do in the seven or eight days.

“We simply have to accept it and move on.”

Daniel Ricciardo walks in the pitlane after qualifying in 18th. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images.

McLaren technical director James Key highlighted several issues as an explanation for why the team has struggled so much in Bahrain.

He said the team is struggling for grip and is dealing with the domino effect of trying to manage a problem with high front brake temperatures.

According to autosport.com, Keys said the team still has plenty of performance to unlock.

“Here, I’ve got to say we’re obviously surprised,” he said.

“It’s been a tough weekend for us, and we definitely came in on the backfoot, having not tested properly at all last week, because of these brake issues that has crept up on us.

He went on to say: “I’m not going to stand here and say, ‘everything’s perfect’, because for sure this track in particular, we’ve just sort of highlighted some of the weaknesses we’ve got. And it’s a general thing.

“The car itself, the platform is working well. Mechanically, it’s fine. Aerodynamically, it does what it’s supposed to do. The drivers aren’t finding the extremes we had in past years with different rates of balance and difficulty. So it’s a lot more consistent in that respect.

“What we need is more grip.”

Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying results 2022

1) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull

3) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

4) Sergio Perez, Red Bull

5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

6) Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo

7) Kevin Magnussen, Haas

8) Fernando Alonso, Alpine

9) George Russell, Mercedes

10) Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri

11) Esteban Ocon, Alpine-Renault

12) Mick Schumacher, Haas

13) Lando Norris, McLaren

14) Alexander Albon, Williams

15) Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo

16) Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri

17) Nico Hulkenberg, Aston Martin

18) Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren

19) Lance Stroll Aston, Martin

20) Nicholas Latifi, Williams