Ricciardo has made a difficult start at McLaren since his winter change and has finished four of the five races so far this season behind his team-mate Lando Norris.
The Australian’s struggles continued over the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, which Ricciardo described as a “disaster” after finishing only 12th, while Norris finished third on his second podium of the year.
McLaren Team Principal Seidl believes that Ricciardo’s progress towards the full upgrade has been hampered by the challenge of customizing it to the specific characteristics of the MCL35M.
“I think if you look back we have made good progress with him since the beginning of the season,” said Seidl.
“In order to be able to drive our car fast at the moment, you need a special driving style that Daniel cannot take for granted. That’s why it’s not that easy for him to do the laps and extract the power.
“Now we just have to keep working together as a team, keep calm, keep analyzing, keep learning and do two things that will make it further adapt to our car.
On the subject of matching items
“Because he sees that the potential is there, which I think is the positive for him to see it, and that Lando can do it.
“And at the same time, we’ll also be looking at the team page to see what we can do to help him on the car side and get back his natural feeling that you need to drive fast.”
Ricciardo was stunned after battling his way to 12th in qualifying and said he “refuses to believe” that he had lost his deficit on teammate Norris, who drove a lap good enough for fifth Starting place was.
After the race, the seven-time Grand Prix winner admitted that he still lacks the confidence to repeat what Norris can do in the car.
On the subject of matching items
“There are differences in the data and that’s why Lando is faster in this corner and I can see it, but I am not convinced that I will be able to,” he said.
“But we will see. Maybe it’s still a little bit of me trying to get used to the car, but I’m sure they will check everything out too. When it’s that far away, it’s a little difficult. “
Ricciardo, however, stressed that he wanted to avoid over-analyzing his performance over the weekend and said it would take him a few days to grapple with what was happening.
“I will obviously keep working on it,” he added.
But I feel like we’ve been so far away and so behind this weekend that part of me just wants to switch off for a few days. Otherwise it’s like paralysis about the analysis.
“I’ve been there before and I don’t want to go back to it.”
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