We all remember Sebastian Vettel’s “We have to remember these days” radio call. It’ll go down as one of the most iconic Red Bull radio calls in history. Similarly, one would expect the people at Red Bull to remember Max Verstappen’s 2021 triumph as one of the most thrilling and greatest memories of all time. However, a trusted Max Verstappen aide hailed Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull rescuing act to give a cold shoulder to Max Verstappen. Let’s dive deeper and see what it’s all about. 

Calum Nicholas has been with Red Bull since 2015. The Red Bull senior technician was lucky enough to witness Max Verstappen’s triumphs in 2021. A showdown that came down to the wire. He was also there to witness the 2022 prowess. However, when the Max Verstappen ally was asked about his fondest memory in F1, he picked Daniel Ricciardo’s 2018 Chinese GP win as he pushed Verstappen’s exploits aside. 

According to the Track Limits podcast, Calum Nicholas said, “One of my fondest memories was China in like 2018 with Ricciardo. Because it was chaos, the whole week it was absolutely chaos. It was one of the hardest weeks in terms of the workload. Everything went wrong at the wrong time. We barely got the car out for qualifying. We just kept our heads down and came out with an amazing win. I remember being in the bar late that night and just being ‘Ohhh that was fun’.”

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The 2018 Chinese GP was however a spectacular race. The icing on the cake was Daniel Ricciardo’s comeback making it indeed a memorable one. Let’s see how that weekend panned out for Ricciardo and why Nicholas cherishes that race so much.

From an engine failure to a GP win: Daniel Ricciardo’s heroic comeback at the 2018 Chinese GP

2018 was a year dominated by Mercedes and Ferrari with Hamilton and Vettel fighting it out for the title. Daniel Ricciardo didn’t have the greatest of practice sessions at the 2018 Chinese GP as the HoneyBadger’s Red Bull suffered an engine failure in FP3. The mechanics only had 2 hours to get the car running again for the qualifying session, which they did as Ricciardo finished P6.

The Australian had an average start and lost some places but was able to retake them and maintain his starting position. It was the safety car caused by the two Toro Rosso’s crashing that brought Ricciardo into the mix. The Honey Badger pitted for fresh tires and started overtaking the front runners one by one. While Max Verstappen who was in front of him looked like the one who took the win crashed with Sebastian Vettel and lost multiple places. Ricciardo overtook Bottas for the lead and went on to win the race. 

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