u/DniawSirhc

Daniel Ricciardo has one of the strangest careers to analyse and his perception amongst the general public is incredibly polarising depending on who you ask, he’s either a WDC that never was or an overrated PR merchant. I believe he was much closer to the former than the latter however I don’t believe he was necessarily WDC level.

An argument for him being WDC level is the level of performance he had in his career without having the fastest car. Ricciardo was the ultimate opportunist where most of his wins were smash and grab where he capitalised on issues/errors for the faster cars.

The only races he had where the Red Bull was the definitive fastest car were Monaco 2016, Monaco 2018, and Mexico 2018. He got pole in all of those with both Monaco races having Verstappen either crash in FP3 or Q1 and start at the back of the grid. Verstappen jumped him at the start in Mexico before his engine inevitably blew up anyway as it was 2018.

Mexico 2017 was potentially another race where Red Bull was the fastest but he had an engine penalty and it still blew up anyway and in Malaysia 2017, you could argue that the Red Bull was quickest in race trim, considering Verstappen won by 12 seconds ahead of the Mercedes. Realistically he should’ve dominated both Monaco weekends but strategy screwed him in 2016 and if it was any other track than Monaco, the MGU-K issue would’ve cost him the win in 2018.

The main argument against him being WDC level is the he lacked the absolute top end outright speed that most champions have and his inability to adapt to a difficult car. He could access that kind of peak pace occasionally but it was never consistent across a season and his McLaren stint showed that he was fundamentally limited as a driver.

When you compare him to his three teammates that either were or would become champions, he stacks up decently well but it also shows his limitations.

He beat Vettel in qualifying in 2014 (11-7) in his first Red Bull season which is an impressive achievement but Vettel was very clearly checked out towards the end of the season. He was even more dominant against Vettel in the races with 3 wins and 8 podiums to Vettel’s 0 wins and 4 podiums however Vettel suffered a myriad of reliability issues.

He was close to Verstappen in qualifying when Verstappen joined Red Bull (11-6 in 2016) but as Verstappen matured he comfortably beat Ricciardo (13-28 across 2017 and 2018). He had the highest peaks with 3 poles to Verstappen’s 0, but Verstappen’s crashes in Monaco were self inflicted and the gap between them in Mexico was 0.026. Similarly in the races he held an advantage over Verstappen in 2016 but Verstappen overturned that in 2017 and 2018, although both suffered terrible reliability at the hands of the Renault engine.

His worst qualifying performance came against Norris (9-35 across 2021 and 2022) and was nearly whitewashed in 2022 but Norris had tonsillitis in Spain and an engine issue in Canada, these were the only sessions Ricciardo outqualified him in 2022. It was slightly better in the races in 2021, with his famous Monza win being a bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming season before his 2022 which became an absolute demolition job by Norris.

His stint alongside Verstappen is probably the most representative of his true talent level, more than a number 2 driver but not able to match a generational talent, even before that talent had yet to fully form. No one would argue that Ricciardo is better than Vettel despite 2014, the same way that 2022 is not representative of the gap between Norris and Ricciardo (in hindsight, 2021 might be decently representative with a few caveats).

Perhaps the biggest question mark against Ricciardo’s WDC level candidacy is that we never saw Ricciardo in a title fight and as recent history has shown, it is much easier to perform consistently when you don’t have the pressure of said title fight week in and week out, and your mistakes and off weekends are much more scrutinised when you are fighting for P1 instead of P4.

Norris, Russell, and Leclerc have all had almost flawless seasons when they weren’t in title contention compared to some high profile mistakes/lack of pace when they were in title contention. Norris’ 2022 compared to his 2025, Russell’s 2025 compared to his start to 2026, and Leclerc’s 2025 compared to his first half of 2022.

In summary, Ricciardo might not have necessarily been a WDC level driver but he was pretty damn close and much closer than the vast majority of non WDC’s in F1 history.

After his crash and subsequent diagnosis, Marc Márquez will miss the next two races at a minimum but with multiple surgeries planned (the foot fracture and screw in his shoulder), he could be potentially miss more time throughout the season, especially if he takes time off to properly recover as his title chances don’t look particularly fruitful at this time.

Another scenario is that he decides that’s enough and retires after years of injuries and pain, which leads me to this question, what does a Marc Márquez-less future look like for MotoGP and is it able to withstand his loss?

When I say ‘withstand his loss’, I don’t believe that MotoGP would fold or anything to that degree but Dorna and MotoGP have done a poor job marketing at MotoGP to the masses outside of Marc Márquez. They had the same issue with Valentino Rossi who dragged the sport kicking and screaming into more mainstream cultural relevance in the early 2000’s and were fortunate that another rider could fill the void that he would leave (even if he arguably held on too long).

MotoGP have been similarly reliant on Márquez, after the collision with Bezzechi in Mandalika last year, a large amount of social media posts/commentary/general airtime were about Marc. He’s earned that right through his performances but it’s become a crutch for MotoGP, they are seemingly unable to tell a story without including Marc, if he misses a significant chunk of time, a lot of the broadcast will be about Marc, whereas he should be able to recover and rebuild himself without media coverage and speculation (on either his recovery or his future).

There is hope that Liberty Media could bring more eyes onto MotoGP and create stars out of other riders the same way they have done in F1 with Drive to Survive and improved accessibility to highlights/replays.

F1 didn’t have readily available highlights until 2017 (because Bernie Ecclestone is a fossil who doesn’t understand social media) and MotoGP is still poor at uploading highlights/replays, they don’t post the actual highlights until the end of the year and the highlights they do post are called ‘Top 3 moments of [blank]’, which makes it harder for casual and new fans to find, watch, and become invested in the sport.

If Márquez was to retire at either the end of this year or next year, what do you think it would look like for MotoGP, and who would potentially be able to fill that void?

These are the four most recent drivers to have taken a title fight to a decider and not become champion in their careers. There have been many other drivers who took a title fight to a decider and lost before becoming a champion so Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg (to name a few) don’t count here.

Piastri still has a chance to become champion as he is an active driver but the last driver to be involved in a title decider and not win a championship before Irvine was René Arnoux in 1983 and that seemed a bit too far back for a comparison.

I think Irvine is a clear last but it’s in interesting debate for the other three, I would probably put Piastri top.