Formula 1 is the dream for any and almost every racing driver in the world. However, when the going gets tough, even the best of the best sometimes find it difficult to navigate through the highly stressful world of F1. This is exactly why we see so many talented drivers not go the distance even after making it to the premier class. On some occasions, even seasoned drivers succumb to the pressure, like Daniel Ricciardo did at McLaren.

The Australian was a shadow of himself at McLaren and despite securing the only win in 2021 and ending a long drought; he fell deeper into his hole. A hole he came out of only after leaving the Woking outfit and after re-joining Red Bull. The Australian even admitted to suffering mentally, which affected his racing significantly. He admitted he wasn’t eating right and, “I think I just wasn’t feeling right. I was honestly just not like my happy self, not my normal self.” To ensure this scenario doesn’t repeat itself, the Visa Cash App RB team is taking precautions, as revealed by the boss, Laurent Mekies.

VCARB treading very carefully with the mental health of Daniel Ricciardo in mind

Probably unheard of in F1 before, but the Bulls are making sure their driver is fit not only physically but also mentally. The VCARB team adopts this approach to ensure they don’t put Ricciardo under unnecessary pressure and risk a repeat of his time at the Woking outfit. They are being very careful and including Ricciardo in the process to optimize it, which Mekies confessed in the latest episode of the F1: Beyond the Grid podcast.

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The boss said, “So, it’s very difficult from outside to understand it. Probably difficult for the people inside to understand it, I’m doing that here to second guess that. But I would lie if I was not telling you that this increase the attention level we have, in making sure we have the right conditions around him. So we are very careful with him and he’s part of the process, he’s driving that process, in making sure we put him in the right spot 360° in the car, outside of the car, and how we manage his energy.”

“They Expect Results”: Despite Getting Enough Time to Adapt, Daniel Ricciardo Exposes Red Bull’s Brutal Reality

We are glad to see a team recognizing a driver’s mental state as a vital criterion in their upkeep, and this is all thanks to Ricciardo and his honest admission. We are thankful because some drivers take the harder path and suffer in silence and don’t open up till much later in life, for example–Valtteri Bottas.

Valtteri Bottas admits he almost quit back in 2018

The now Stake F1 driver was once running front and center with Mercedes. During his years with the Silver Arrows, Bottas enjoyed a lot of success and won the constructors’ championship every year. However, this dominance by the team, especially his teammate, was the root cause of his degrading mental health. Bottas admitted this after leaving Mercedes in 2022.

He revealed how he almost quit just after his first two years with the Brackley outfit after being unable to deal with the reality of not being able to beat Lewis Hamilton in equal machinery, not many do. However, Bottas not winning a single race during the first two years took a serious toll on him and almost pushed him to quit.

“At the end of 2018, I almost stopped. It was so close. Just because of the fact that I couldn’t understand and take the fact that I couldn’t beat Lewis in those two years. I put so much pressure on myself. Towards the end of ’18, especially when I started to have the support role in the team, I really couldn’t take it. I really struggled. It was not fun,” he admitted.

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