McLaren F1 team driver Daniel Ricciardo has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 2022.
Follow Us
Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was on Wednesday (January 26) appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.
January 26 is marked as Australia Day in the country and it is a day when a number of people are named in the Governor General’s 2022 Australia Day Honours List.
His appointment was on the grounds of “significant service to motorsport as a competitor and ambassador, and to the community”.
Ricciardo joins the likes of Toby Price, Craig Lowndes, Mark Webber, Mark Skaife, Jack Brabham and Peter Brock in the Order of Australia system.
In fact, this year saw seven people – including Ricciardo – get named due to contributions to the world of motorsport.
It is a fitting honour to the lone Australian currently on the F1 grid. And it will doubtless be pleasant news to the Honey Badger’s many fans.
It’s also worth noting that the honour comes at the end of what was a tough season for Ricciardo. He joined the McLaren F1 team for 2021 and became a race winner again; him and teammate Lando Norris took a 1-2 finish at the Italian GP.
But overall it was a year of struggle for the Aussie driver. He was generally outpaced by younger teammate Norris, and could not get on top of the McLaren car.
It will be interesting to see how the team fares in 2022. The new regulations will be in force, leading to new-look cars that in theory will bring about closer racing.
McLaren announced on January 17 that they will be launching their 2022 car on February 11, 2022.
But it is not just their F1 car that will be revealed on February 11. The team teased on social media that three of their other operations will also be present at the launch at the team’s Woking base.
These other operations are their Extreme E, IndyCar, and Esports squads. This means they are going all out as far as car launches are concerned.
finished 2020 third in the constructor’s championship, taking home the title of “best of the rest”. However, they slipped one place down to fourth in the standings in 2021.
The team that beat them to third last season? Their rivals Ferrari, who had a more consistent year all-round in terms of points being scored.
Nevertheless, there were other high points for the Woking-based team. Whether the team can continue to get big results will depend, of course, on the new car for next season.
Pre-season testing begins in February, with the season-opening Bahrain GP in the beginning of March.
