Nine years ago to the day, Daniel Ricciardo’s first victory

In the history of Formula 1, the Canadian Grand Prix has often been synonymous with a driver’s first victory. One only needs to remember Gilles Villeneuve’s first success in 1978. It is also the only and unique victory for Alesi and Kubica, respectively in 1995 and 2008. And for Lewis Hamilton, the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix is the British driver’s first victory, the very first of a long series.

Seven years after the triumph of the British driver, it is now the turn of another driver to shine on Canadian soil, still active today but as the third driver for Red Bull Racing: Daniel Ricciardo.

To understand how the Australian clinched his first victory, we need to go back exactly nine years, to June 8, 2014. A season characterized by a true technical revolution, marked by the introduction of hybrid engines, thus putting an end to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s dominance. The German, who had won four world titles from 2010 to 2013, could not resist the incredible power gain of Mercedes.

At the same time, Vettel found himself again with an Australian driver as a teammate, but this time it wasn’t Mark Webber: for the 2014 season, Red Bull indeed relied on the qualities of a young and cheerful talent like that of Daniel Ricciardo.

After two consecutive podium finishes in Monaco and Spain, he starts 6th, far behind the Mercedes in 1st and 2nd on the grid. Rosberg ahead of Hamilton. However, the race will have a very different outcome.

First defeat of the hybrid era for Mercedes

At the start, Vettel slots in between the two Mercedes after an excellent start, but the GP is immediately neutralized by the Safety Car due to an accident between the two Marussias. Both are out of the race, and with debris all over the track, the safety car leads the pack until the seventh lap. Daniel is in sixth place, immediately in front of him are the two Mercedes-powered Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. Ahead of them, Hamilton quickly uses the advantage of his W05 to regain second place from Vettel and sets off in pursuit of the leader, his teammate Nico Rosberg.

If the RB10s cannot compete with the Mercedes in terms of speed, they can fight in terms of strategy and tire wear. While Bottas complains about graining as early as the 11th lap, Daniel takes the lead by switching to soft tires at the end of the 13th lap. Caught off guard, Bottas goes to the pit on the following lap, followed a lap later by Vettel and Massa. “We were trying the undercut,” said Daniel. “The Williams in front of me was struggling a bit more with their tires, but they kept staying out, and we couldn’t overtake them, so the team called me in.” Daniel had an excellent in-lap and really pushed hard when leaving the pits.

At the end of the 37th lap, attention shifted to Lewis Hamilton, who began experiencing power issues. One lap later, Rosberg reported the same thing. With the Mercedes cars slowed down by MGU-K problems, the battles behind became more significant: drivers were fighting for a potential victory.

On the 44th lap, Rosberg makes a second pit stop and comes out behind Massa, which shows how much time the Mercedes has lost in the previous laps. Hamilton enters the pits one lap later and comes out ahead of Rosberg but behind Massa. He held on for two more laps before retiring. History will speak of a brake failure, but it was actually the MGU-K failure that forced the rear brakes to do more work than they were capable of on the most demanding braking circuit on the calendar. Massa relinquished the lead on the 49th lap by pitting himself.

Three loops before the finish, Ricciardo overtakes a struggling Rosberg with his Mercedes. Despite a final lap under safety car conditions, nothing prevents Daniel Ricciardo from securing his first Formula 1 victory.