Ricciardo has had a difficult transition from Renault to McLaren so far but made a “mini breakthrough” in the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing sixth after qualifying seventh on the grid.
Two weeks later, the Australian appeared to have taken a step back with his adaptation to the McLaren MCL35M in Monaco. On Saturday, he failed to make it through the third quarter, starting in 12th place in a race he won in 2018.
Immediately after qualifying, Ricciardo said he was confused about the huge gap with team-mate Lando Norris and that he would “ask” whether factors other than his driving style adjustment would play a role.
McLaren team boss Seidl said the team had found some answers to Ricciardo’s struggles on telemetry and it will help him “recalibrate” the problem in the upcoming races.
“I think this track emphasizes the problems he still has with our car and when we look at the data we have a clear idea of what it is about,” explained Seidl.
“Our car only needs a certain driving style to get maximum performance. Lando is obviously used to it and he can do it. But it just doesn’t feel natural to Daniel with everything he’s driven in the past.
“It’s just important to stay calm even after a disappointing result like today, to continue working as a team, further analyzing the data and learning from it.
“And then let’s say two actions that, together with Daniel, try to recalibrate him to a certain extent in order to adapt his driving style to our car.
“But of course we also look on the team side to see if we can adjust the car so that it is more natural for him to drive fast so that he has to think less without obviously affecting the overall performance.”
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
When asked about Ricciardo’s comments after qualifying about possible underlying problems with the car, Seidl said that these words “should be put into context” that come immediately after getting out of the car.
“One reason why I love the sport and why you love the sport is that it is a human sport and we like the emotions of team members or drivers after good or bad sessions,” added Seidl.
“And that’s why I think you have to put Daniel’s quotes after qualifying into context.
“As I said before, looking at the data we have a clear idea of why Daniel couldn’t produce lap time in the second quarter to move on to the third quarter.”
Ricciardo later added that the differences from Norris were visible in the data, including the braking technique, but that the hard part would be doing what the telemetry brought to light.
“There are some differences, some of them are visible and I see them and I think, ‘OK, that would help do that in this corner,'” said Ricciardo on Saturday night.
“I think the difficulty is doing that and perfecting that. I just have to keep working on that.
“I think right now this track is probably emphasizing that it’s not that natural for me. So this is personal, I’m still trying to recalibrate myself in my brain and in my style.”
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