Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that his defeat at the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix “haunted me for two years”, before he made amends with victory in the 2018 encounter.
Ricciardo led from pole at the wet/dry 2016 race but a delay during the pits cost him track position to Lewis Hamilton, who went on to triumph, with Ricciardo following in second.
Ricciardo went on to claim third in a 2017 event controlled by Ferrari before dominating the 2018 round – leading every on-track session – as he overcame a mid-race loss of power to register victory.
“I’m not going to lie, Monaco 2016 haunted me for two years,” he wrote as part of his ‘Dan’s Diary’ series of columns, published on his social media accounts.
“Then to not put a foot wrong in 2018 and thinking the win would slip away from me again…
“With Monaco, if you hold the lead into the first corner from pole, it’s yours to lose in a way, the race is in your hands.
“But 2018 was a different level of stress simply because of what had happened there in ’16. The main feeling was sheer relief that this time I didn’t have it taken from me.
“I enjoyed it more the days after the Sunday because I was just burned out. It was a massive exhale than anything else.”
Ricciardo went on to describe the 2016 defeat as the race in his career that left him with the most anger, commenting: “Even four years on, I remember this day in so much detail, it’s like a video in my mind.
“I can picture myself driving through the corner before the tunnel after THAT pit stop and I was so angry.
“I wouldn’t have minded having a mechanical so I didn’t finish, I didn’t want to talk to anyone afterwards, I certainly didn’t want any sympathy… it was just pure rage.
“I remember standing on the podium with Lewis, he’d won a race that I had under control… I just didn’t want to be there.
“I had a moment of clarity in the media pen afterwards, where I thought that if finishing second at Monaco is the worst day in my life, then I should probably wake up, so that was when the anger started to turn into disappointment.”
