Daniel Ricciardo has been praised for his positive attitude despite going through one of the toughest periods of his Formula 1 career.
The Australian was due to race for McLaren until the end of next season, but that will not happen. Instead, he has been cut loose a year earlier than planned owing to his ongoing struggles to get to grips with his car and deliver consistent results.
Team-mate Lando Norris has been regularly outqualifying and outscoring him, despite also having to drive an often temperamental MCL36. As a result, Ricciardo will be replaced by Oscar Piastri next year and may not find a seat for himself anywhere else on the grid.
His misery was summed up at the Italian Grand Prix, which promised to yield a strong result for him. He started fourth on the grid and was on course to score points, but just six laps from the end he suffered a mechanical problem and those points were cruelly snatched away.
Despite that agony, Ricciardo was his usual smiley self in front of the TV cameras afterwards, prompting actor and comedian Will Arnett to rave about his attitude. "He's got that winning attitude... it's never 'poor me' and it's never crying," said the American on his F1 podcast Fast & Loose.
"There are the kind of guys, you know, in football terms, get tackled down near their ankles and they go to the ground and hold their face, but Danny doesn't have that... he's kind of like 'that's the way it goes, I didn't have a great thing, I crapped out and I'm gonna get up and dust off' and that's a winning recipe no matter what he does."
But despite that seemingly bulletproof confidence, Ricciardo is struggling to make sure he will still be on the grid next year. A return to Alpine looks unlikely, and the only other viable seat for the Australian looks to be at Haas.
Guenther Steiner is considering his options for a driver to partner Kevin Magnussen next year. Mick Schumacher has not yet done enough to convince Haas to extend his contract, while Aston Martin reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg is also a surprise but genuine contender for the seat.
"I've talked to most of the potential drivers, which is my job," said Steiner at Monza last weekend. "There's nothing concrete yet, but we only want to take the smallest risks for the development of the team. You can take a big risk which is great when it works, but it's bad when it doesn't."
