Daniel Ricciardo will ply his driving trade for a fifth team as he joins resurgent McLaren for the 2021 season. But, before officially signing with McLaren, Ferrari reportedly considered him to replace Sebastian Vettel. And Former F1 driver Romain Grosjean believes that the Italian team should have taken that discussion to fruition and signed Ricciardo instead of Carlos Sainz.

The Aussie has shown his natural racing ability time and time again, as demonstrated by his seven race wins. However, in his time in F1, he has never been in the title picture. He has also been unlucky at times, as midway through his Red Bull tenure, young Max Verstappen was clearly the chosen one.

He then made the switch to Renault, but the lack of a competitive car forced him to pack up yet again. Now, he hopes to showcase his full potential on the track with a team that finished third in the constructors’ championship last season.

Ferrari should have signed Daniel Ricciardo according to Grosjean

In an interview (translated via Google), former F1 driver Romain Grosjean spoke about how he was surprised by Ferrari’s 2021 driver pairing.

“A sensible couple, Charles is the future. Although I was surprised by the choice to take Carlos, who also went very well with McLaren.”

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As for the reasoning, he simply said, “I would have taken Ricciardo.” 

The Frenchman also spoke about his experience with the 2020 Ferrari engine. He said, “In qualifying the unit was really down, a little less in the race: but you couldn’t overtake.

“But there is another factor to consider: in 2019 Ferrari had such a good unit that it pushed Mercedes and Honda to improve a lot. And when in Maranello they had to change systems (for the FIA ​​directives ed), the others had made a leap forward.”

Can Ferrari recover from 2020?

This yeFerrari look to recover from their suboptimal 2020 season which saw them finish in a lowly sixth. They didn’t suffer from any reliability issues in preseason testing and were able to show off the pace of the car at times. So, now that the team are looking to redeem themselves, they will be hoping to carry forward their testing luck into the season opener at Bahrain this weekend.

The Italian team has shown great progress in updating their power unit for the 2021 season. They have also shown a focus on the rear of the car, which they are hoping gives them marginal gains.

However, the expectations of the team in 2021 should not be to challenge for the title. They should look to improve on their 2020 finish and finish as best of the rest. If they are able to do that, they will be able to make a great play for the 2022 title.