Daniel Ricciardo’s future in Formula 1 looks increasingly uncertain. The 8-time race winner’s recent string of poor performances has led many to speculate that the Australian could face early retirement from the sport unless his form picks up. One commenter, however, offered a rather unique piece of advice to “The Honey Badger”: play more computer games.

1996 Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill, during his appearance on a recent F1 Nation podcast, suggested that Ricciardo’s lack of simulator racing experience and hours could be the reason his teammate Lando Norris shows it.

“I wonder if there’s something in the nature of Formula 1 these days that helps a younger generation of drivers because I think they’re used to playing computer games. Look Max [Verstappen]he’s on a video game all the time,” Hill reflected.

“Before, they all went karting, Michael Schumacher, he went there and went karting when he had the chance, except for Fernando Alonso, who also goes karting all the time to keep his advantage. But there’s a younger generation that used computers a lot more, and I don’t think Daniel was one of them, that generation.

Damon Hill

“I think there’s something about the way cars can be driven. By using different parts of the brain…it has more to do with the signals they receive rather than through the seat of their pants, they are able to react to what they see,” Hill continues.

“It potentially opens up a possibility for the engineers to have a different setup, so they can go from an optimal setup, which maybe doesn’t feel as much to the old-school riders.”

There is perhaps some merit to Hill’s theory. Many young drivers on the grid – such as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Mercedes’ George Russell, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and of course McLaren’s Lando Norris – all spend much of their free time on racing simulators and broadcast regularly their virtual racing exploits on platforms like Twitch. They often race each other too.

With how advanced and realistic modern driving simulators are – even fairly mainstream ones like the official F1 video game – it could be that all that screen time is what gives these young guns the edge. They literally do more laps.

RELATED: The Miami Grand Prix asks us: When did Formula 1 get so garish?

Additionally, many commentators have suggested that “older” drivers (under pressure from younger, talented teammates) like Ricciardo or Lewis Hamilton, have a mindset where they need a car to match. their needs, rather than adapting their driving style to their car.

Maybe all that sim racing experience – where you don’t have as close a connection to the car and so you’re forced to work around your vehicle, in a sense – means young drivers like Leclerc, Norris and Russell are better at getting used to new machines, such as the radically different cars that F1 introduced in 2022.

Indeed, Ricciardo himself spoke a bit about the mental block he had to overcome when it came to virtual racing.

“At first I thought it was just something fun to pass the time, but I really see there’s a bit more to it now,” he said. Motorsport.com in an interview last year.

“Some of the sim racers were able to transfer their skills into a real car and that was a bit of a revelation. We talked about F1 1995, and that was very different to what we have now. So probably for a while, my head was like ‘ah, it’s just a game.’ Now what can I really learn from this?”

Daniel Ricardo

“I would say the biggest challenge that all of us F1 drivers have is that we only have a few chances every weekend to put on a new set of tires and get the perfect lap,” Ricciardo said.

“Sometimes there are three weeks between races, then at the end of the season there are two or three months. It’s crazy, for a sport that’s so precise, and there’s so much technology involved, and with such precision, that it’s hard for any of us to be truly perfect because we only get just not the mileage. This is where I definitely became more open-minded.

RELATED: How much does it cost to run a Formula 1 race

Ricciardo’s form is showing some early signs of recovery. In last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Ricciardo finished 8th: his first point since his home race at the Australian Grand Prix and his second point this year overall. Importantly, he finished ahead of Norris, who finished 9th.

RELATED: Max Verstappen Calls Bulls**t On Drive To Survive ‘Fake Rivalries’

The 2022 Formula 1 World Championship continues with the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend. Montreal has traditionally been a pretty solid lead for Ricciardo – indeed, it was where he scored his first F1 win in 2014. Fingers crossed he can work some magic again.

Read more