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After the first 4-5 races, many F1 'experts' claimed that Daniel Ricciardo was on the last legs of his career and Carlos Sainz was better than Charles Leclerc. That was the bottom line for so many of them that, even as a viewer and a fan, it was hard to fathom.
The 2024 F1 season began with both Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo not having the best of starts. For the Ferrari driver, he was not too comfortable in the car. He'd struggled to sort out his qualifying and that cost him in Suzuka and Melbourne. He lost a podium in Suzuka, but in Australia, he lost a win to his teammate.
On the other hand, Daniel Ricciardo had a torrid start to the season. The Australian was just uncomfortable in the car. Unable to find the sweet spot, he was getting hammered by teammate Yuki Tsunoda. While it is appreciable to give the Japanese and the Spanish drivers their credit, the hyperbole and claims made by quite a few pundits went overboard.
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The Charles Leclerc discourse
If we talk about the Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dynamic, many F1 experts had some outlandish takes. There were claims that Leclerc did not have the guile of Sainz. Many pundits claimed that the Spaniard was the better driver on the team and that the Italian squad had made a mistake by letting Carlos go for 2025.
The discourse got so extreme that even Fred Vasseur was forced to point out that Charles Leclerc had out-qualified Carlos in the last 8 events before he lost out in Melbourne.
What made it all worse was the lack of tact or long-term analysis before reaching a conclusion. The pundits looked at the three races in Bahrain, Melbourne, and Japan to reach a sweeping conclusion, even though Charles Leclerc had enjoyed a healthy advantage over Carlos Sainz for a long time.
The Daniel Ricciardo discourse
Daniel Ricciardo went through something similar where pundits wasted no time in writing obituaries about his career. The driver had a bad start to the season and was on the back foot. He had found it hard to develop a decent baseline performance in the car and was quite openly mystified by the lack of performance.
The F1 punditry wasted no time in eulogizing Daniel Ricciardo's career. It began with suggestions that Liam Lawson could replace the Australian soon. It also featured comments that involved claims about the Australian being unable to adapt to the ground effect era.
All of this ignored one very basic aspect: Daniel Ricciardo had been very impressive in the limited opportunities he got in 2023. It was neck and neck between him and Yuki Tsunoda last season, and that should be an indication that the first 4 races were more of an anomaly than the norm.
The sweeping claims have fallen flat
In the last two events, the entire discourse has been turned on its head. Charles Leclerc seems to have sorted out his qualifying form and out-qualified Carlos Sainz in three out of the last 4 sessions (2 sprints and 2 GPs). In all four of these events, he's been the lead Ferrari and quite clearly a step ahead of the Spaniard.
For Daniel Ricciardo as well, the new chassis in Shanghai was a game changer. The Australian has out-qualified and out-performed teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 3 of the last 4 events, with the Japanese counterpart having a strong performance in Miami. Daniel rolled back the clock with a splendid overall race execution in the sprint in Miami, where he fended off multiple faster cars.
The F1 'experts' have been exposed
Arguably one of the biggest takeaways from all of this has been the fact that the F1 'experts' have been exposed. Quite a few of the pundits on some of the biggest publications and media networks don't use data to base their takes.
More often than not, these takes are shortsighted and lack the context of a larger sample size. When something like that happens, the takes tend to be inaccurate, and unfortunately, misguiding for the audience as well.
Charles Leclerc was termed an inferior driver to the one he had out-qualified in the last 8 events. Daniel Ricciardo was considered rotten goods after just four races when he had shown impressive form last season.
In the long term, both could happen. We could see Charles Leclerc getting outperformed by Carlos Sainz. We could even see Daniel Ricciardo proving to be a driver past his prime. But for us to reach that conclusion, we need a broader and much larger sample size.
The early season discourse featuring these two drivers has exposed a major flaw in F1 punditry, and as a fan and a viewer, one might need to keep an eye on it.
