'Now that was fun': Daniel gets the gloves off to fire in France’

Daniel was in a fighting mood for round seven of the season at Le Castellet, equalling his best result of 2021 and winning some wheel-to-wheel arguments along the way … 

Elbows out, all in – that was the tale of Daniel's run to sixth at the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard, where he used a feisty first lap and strong race pace to equal his season-best showings at Imola and Barcelona.

While eight points was his reward for 53 laps of toil, Daniel found a level of fun in France that he'd not had in those previous high points of 2021, mostly because he was in attack mode from when the lights went out, making strong passes on McLaren teammate Lando Norris and Alpine's Fernando Alonso in the opening laps.

"It was definitely the most fun race of the year from an attacking point of view," Daniel says.

"I know it was my equal-best result of the year but there were some fulfilment coming through the field, having a good start and putting on some moves. So definitely a step in the right direction."

From 10th on the grid, Daniel ran as high as seventh before his one pit stop for the race on lap 16, where he dispensed with his medium tyres for hards for the long run to the chequered flag.

He moved back inside the top 10 after the majority of the field had stopped for tyres on lap 24, advanced to seventh before Norris went ahead of him on lap 33, and then spent the final 16 laps in sixth place after the Aston Martins of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll finally pitted, finishing just over a second ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly, who had started four places further up the grid.

"Le Castellet is definitely a different track to Baku so maybe that's some of it, but I did feel comfortable from the get-go," he says.

"The street circuits – I do love them, but looking back, the reason I've loved them in the past was because I had a lot of confidence. That's what they reward, and while I still have a lot of confidence in myself as a driver, it's hard to expect miracles on street circuits if you're not at one with the car.

"It makes sense that Monaco and Baku weren't that good for me, so coming to Le Castellet was a bit more steady. There's run-off to make mistakes if you want to explore and experiment."

It was a big day for McLaren in their fight with Ferrari for third in the constructors' championship, the team taking home 18 points for fifth (Norris) and sixth (Daniel) places while Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc failed to score. McLaren now leads Ferrari by 16 points in the teams' championship, while Daniel advanced to ninth place in the drivers' standings with 34 points.

Hot on the heels of France comes a back-to-back at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, site of a podium for Daniel in 2017 when he finished third. Three races in as many weekends is a hectic schedule even by F1 standards, but count Daniel as a fan. More racing? Bring it on.

"I love having back-to-backs or even triple-headers," he says.

"Yes, they're exhausting but it's good because we can't do this sport every day, it's not like picking up a tennis racquet to go and hit some balls, is it?! Chances to drive F1 cars are quite rare so to be able to do it three weeks in a row is good to stay in form and learn quicker.

"Red Bull Ring should be fun – what makes it a decent track for racing is some long straights with some DRS zones. It is hard to follow in the high-speed corners and the cars pull away there, but the DRS pulls it back. If it's hot, maybe like Le Castellet, you might see some tyre deg again and some differences in pace, so that should throw up some good racing. I'm up for more of that!"