Daniel Ricciardo’s sad admission after breakthrough at Australia
Daniel Ricciardo broke through for a long-awaited third points finish of the F1 season at the Austrian Grand Prix, but the Australian star has admitted McLaren have yet to find consistency.
After weeks of mounting pressure on Ricciardo following a string of forgettable midfield performances, he broke through to finish ninth at the Red Bull Ring, with teammate Lando Norris slightly further ahead in seventh.
The increasing points gap between Norris and Ricciardo has been a talking point this season, with some even questioning if McLaren will keep the 33-year-old on for the final year of his contract next season.
Though both McLaren drivers turned in impressive, if low-key performances to recover from a poor qualifying session, it wasn’t lost on Ricciardo that more work needed to be done.
McLaren benefited from the retirments of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez seperately, with Ricciardo and Norris also doing well to gain places on the opening lap.
Daniel Ricciardo’s sad admission after breakthrough at Australia
Despite this, Ricciardo admitted it was an underwhelming result at a traditionally strong circuit for McLaren.
“It was OK. I’m obviously happy to have moved forward and got a couple points out of it,” he said afterwards.
“But yeah, I would have loved a bit more pace.
“There were certainly some areas where I felt better yesterday. (I) didn’t quite have at all times what I wanted in the car today, particularly the first stint.
“I locked up at the start and got a very big flat spot on the first stint and I struggled a lot through all the right hand corners.
MORE NEWS: Max Verstappen trash talks the…
“That was quite a shame because I think we had good track position — I think I made up one or two spots on the first lap. That was good but then didn’t have the pace.
“With newer tyres, it was a little bit better but it still wasn’t everything I hoped for. All that being said, it was a decent race. It was solid but just decent.”
Daniel Ricciardo’s sad admission after breakthrough at Australia
Daniel Ricciardo broke through for a long-awaited third points finish of the F1 season at the Austrian Grand Prix, but the Australian star has admitted McLaren have yet to find consistency.
After weeks of mounting pressure on Ricciardo following a string of forgettable midfield performances, he broke through to finish ninth at the Red Bull Ring, with teammate Lando Norris slightly further ahead in seventh.
The increasing points gap between Norris and Ricciardo has been a talking point this season, with some even questioning if McLaren will keep the 33-year-old on for the final year of his contract next season.
Though both McLaren drivers turned in impressive, if low-key performances to recover from a poor qualifying session, it wasn’t lost on Ricciardo that more work needed to be done.
McLaren benefited from the retirments of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez seperately, with Ricciardo and Norris also doing well to gain places on the opening lap.
Daniel Ricciardo’s sad admission after breakthrough at Australia
Despite this, Ricciardo admitted it was an underwhelming result at a traditionally strong circuit for McLaren.
“It was OK. I’m obviously happy to have moved forward and got a couple points out of it,” he said afterwards.
“But yeah, I would have loved a bit more pace.
“There were certainly some areas where I felt better yesterday. (I) didn’t quite have at all times what I wanted in the car today, particularly the first stint.
“I locked up at the start and got a very big flat spot on the first stint and I struggled a lot through all the right hand corners.
MORE NEWS: Max Verstappen trash talks the…
“That was quite a shame because I think we had good track position — I think I made up one or two spots on the first lap. That was good but then didn’t have the pace.
“With newer tyres, it was a little bit better but it still wasn’t everything I hoped for. All that being said, it was a decent race. It was solid but just decent.”
