Why Ricciardo doesn’t want McLaren to have trouble making him “reject” F1

Since one is absolutely at the top of his game and outperforms every weekend, the other is stumped by his efforts to adapt to the car.

It also means that on days when Ricciardo feels well defeated, like his seventh at the Austrian Grand Prix, everything is overshadowed by what his teammate has done.

As a team player, Ricciardo is of course happy that Norris is making progress and testing the MCL35M.

But it doesn’t make his life any easier as the world by and large questions his shape. In fact, he’s decided he doesn’t have to worry too much about the pace of his young teammate.

“I have the feeling that it has been a very unexpected and difficult season so far, for whatever reason, only from the pace point of view,” he told Autosport after the Austrian race.

“And I think the easiest way for me to move forward is to accept that. Did i expect more? Necessarily. But I think if I go into the game every weekend now and expect to be faster than Lando or whatever it is, I’ll probably just resent the sport because it’s clearly going to take a little longer.

“There is clearly something missing. I feel good in the car, especially in the last three weeks, it felt better.

“I don’t want to say what’s the word, wave the white flag or succumb to whatever it is, I’m just not really going to focus on it or lose too much energy and just accept that he drives very well. The goal is of course to get closer and also to help the team. “

In other words, all he has to do is focus on what he’s doing: “I think that’s it, you can obviously get lost with other things. And maybe that’s the wise kind of 32 year old in me now. But I think I just have to concentrate on myself and then hopefully I can continue tinkering with it. “

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Around the time of Monaco and Baku, Ricciardo admitted that the upcoming Triple Header on “normal” tracks with two races in the same place would be a great opportunity for him to learn more about how to get the most out of the car.

His French GP weekend was solid, 10th on the grid, followed by sixth in the race, about 11.8 seconds behind Norris at the finish. He started 13th at the Styrian GP and had a typically good first lap to catapult himself into eighth place. Decent points seemed possible, but an early engine failure cost him four places and eventually brought him over the finish line in 13th, where he qualified.

In this regard, the Austrian race was a step forward, and he could fight at least.

“Yes, it was better,” he said. “I think it was exactly the day I needed. And for the team, the points, I would definitely say that it was nice to finish in seventh place and get points for them.

“But I mean personally, right now I’m obviously not in a championship fight so the points are, I don’t mean to say irrelevant, but I think the most important thing for me was just having fun, taking part in some fights. and put me in a good position.

“And I did, and the end result was a couple of points, which is nice. I just enjoyed it. It was of course difficult to fully enjoy it when the results weren’t there, so I took a little more fulfillment from the race. “

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Ricciardo still drives the first few laps properly. He passed George Russell and Carlos Sainz at the original start, then Sergio Perez (who went through the gravel) and Charles Leclerc after the early safety car.

“I don’t know if I’m getting old, but the first few laps are blurry!” He smiled. “I remember getting George into turn seven, I don’t remember much else, but I remember having two cars on the first lap and two cars when the safety car restarted.

“So it was good to move forward, of course, and I needed it because I was obviously not on track in qualifying. I mean it was a fun race, I saw people getting squeezed, I heard there were some penalties.

“Because we have the big screens and a lot of long straights, you can somehow see what’s going on. Sometimes I would see a replay of someone being bruised and then I would see their radio broadcast. Hopefully the fans were entertained! “

Yet, despite Ricciardo’s apparent satisfaction with his Sunday afternoon, there was no escaping the fact that Norris crossed the finish line 40s earlier, despite a five-second penalty on his stop.

Ricciardo remains confused by his struggles, especially in qualifying. His suffering continues despite all the homework he and his engineers have done while trying to adjust his driving style.

“I was a bit frustrated that I was pretty happy yesterday [in qualifying]. The car doesn’t feel perfect, but it felt pretty good. It felt better than a car in 13th place.

“I think everything felt fine, it’s just not on the stopwatch. But it gets better out of a feeling. Maybe it’s just literally half a tenth in every corner. And then I am there. I don’t know, but it felt okay. “

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

On the plus side, as he predicted, the triple header gave him the opportunity to earn more miles and try more things in the car.

“Absolutely. And even if I overlay my data from last week on this week, I’m doing a lot more things that this car requires. So I feel like, say, my McLaren driving has improved a lot, and I think that was a bit of the kind of sadness of [qualifying]that it has unfortunately not yet been converted into lap time.

“So maybe it’s still a little bit conscious and I just spend too much energy driving it like that. Maybe just a few more races and then it’s more my subconscious and then I can turn the car more on its edge. Maybe it is We will see.”

Next stop is Silverstone – the track where Ricciardo made his F1 debut with HRT exactly 10 years ago. It wasn’t a particularly fertile place for him, and third place with RBR in 2014 remains his only podium.

New to everyone this year is the Sprint qualifying format, and Ricciardo hopes it will play to one of its obvious strengths.

“The way my starts were in the last three races, I think I made up at least two places on every first lap. So a sprint qualifying means that I will probably start further up the front on Sunday! So I’m looking forward to two races.

“I think it probably has to be treated like a race. If you’re complacent, then you start further back at the end of Sunday, and then you take all the risk on Sunday and then maybe risk the front wing.

“So I would say the mindset is just a normal approach right now. Try to attack if you can and make the most of it.”

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, makes a pit stop

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Ricciardo admits he has reservations about the format: “I mean pit stops are fun, I’ve obviously got used to pit stops and it really brings the team into play too.

“And when they make a good pit stop, and when you run under a car or something with a pit stop, everyone has the feeling that they have contributed to this victory or this result. I like the team element, but we’ll see how it is. “

Looking to the future, Ricciardo can only be happy about his decision to move to McLaren as it is clear that the momentum continues to build.

“I think at the moment it’s Lando who only has the pace that he has and of course the speed,” he said. “The speed is there in the car. I think that gives the team a lot of motivation to work hard with the new regulations for the next year. But obviously something is clicking with the car. I find that encouraging. “