After his winter switch from Renault, seven-time Grand Prix winner Ricciardo helped unveil McLaren’s new F1 car for the 2021 season at his Woking plant on Monday.
McLaren decided to give the MCL35M a maiden run on Tuesday at Silverstone and used the allotment of shooting days for a shakedown to ensure all systems were running as expected.
After seeing his teammate Lando Norris running that morning, Ricciardo did his first laps in a McLaren F1 car on a greasy and damp track at Silverstone that afternoon.
Although the test was limited to just 17 laps due to the limitations of the day of shooting, Ricciardo was happy about the opportunity to get back on track after the winter.
“It actually feels like more than two months!” said Ricciardo.
“It always takes a little to build confidence. I also think it’s greasy in these conditions, they don’t give you a lot of confidence after sitting in the car for a while.
“But no, it’s nice. Everything went really well, we did what we had to do. Really, that’s all you can ask for. I know that the more laps I do, the safer and more comfortable I will feel in this team. “
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The initial shakdown of the MCL35M was all the more important to Ricciardo as the number of tests before the 2021 season was reduced to just three days before the new season.
Ricciardo will be spending a day and a half behind the wheel in Bahrain next month but is confident the team can prepare everything for the season’s opening race.
“Every little bit helps to get familiar with the team, go through all the procedures,” said Ricciardo.
“Really the plan is and the goal is to come to Bahrain on Sunday afternoon, to be on the starting grid and not to panic. It’s really just about feeling comfortable and familiar with the entire crew.
“We go through this and try to play out scenarios that we would run into on a race weekend and yes, we don’t have the atmosphere around us now, but we can certainly try to recreate it and put a bit of pressure on ourselves.
“McLaren started cheering on the right foot, that was a day earlier, and everything was smooth on the first day on the track.
“You can’t ask for much more this part of the season. So now everything ignites on the right cylinders and we are all good. “
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