Daniel Ricciardo said he wouldn’t have been satisfied with his best lap in qualifying even if it hadn’t been deleted for a track limits infringement.
The RB driver will start his home race 18th after being eliminated in Q1. He set a best time of 1’17.466, a tenth of a second slower than his team mate, which would have been good enough for a place in Q2. However Ricciardo ran off-track at turn four and his lap time was deleted.“I wouldn’t even say it sunk in when it happened,” he told the official F1 channel. “Pierre [Hamelin, his race engineer] told me and I kind of knew what it meant, but even now I don’t think it’s fully sunk in.
“On the lap, I knew turn four I was fighting and I knew I washed [out] a little bit wider. But it happens and then you think about the next corner. So I nearly forgot about it until he brought it up.”
However Ricciardo was more concerned that he felt he’d got the best out of the car yet wasn’t quick enough.
“I honestly felt like I’d gave it all I had. So I was happy with the lap, but I wasn’t happy with still where we are in terms of the stopwatch. So for me that still is not quite adding up in my head where I think it should be.
“It’s been a struggle, I would say, all weekend. But come qualifying, everyone puts it on and you can see where you’re at, and that lap was all I had and was still slower.
“I’ve done enough of these laps and qualis and all that to know where I am and there’s still some things I think where we’re missing. But I’m not sure because the team’s put a lot of effort in since Saudi to fix some things that we saw and adjusted the car and put on some new parts here and there, and it looked better. But I’m still a little bit sceptical.”
The 2024 season marks Ricciardo’s return to full-time competition in F1 after being dropped by McLaren two years ago as he struggled to master their car. Today he said he couldn’t understand why he is losing time in some corners.
“The car itself, I feel the balance and that is all within the window. I’m driving, I’m not really struggling with anything in particular. But then you’ll see just some corners I’m a chunk slower, but that’s kind of all I’ve got.
“So, I don’t know. I’ve got some thoughts but I just know a lap like that, it’s normally faster.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Australian Grand Prix
- Alonso calls Australian GP penalty a ‘one-off I’ve had too many of’
- Red Bull saw warning sign of Australian GP brake problem on Saturday – Verstappen
- Failing to punish Alonso would have “opened a can of worms” – Russell
- Leclerc sure “many team principals” are pursuing Sainz for 2025 seat
- “Don’t put me under pressure” – The best unheard team radio from Melbourne
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
23rd March 2024, 9:52
How is it possible when Ricciardo apparently, I quote, ““I’m not going to sugar coat it. The first timed lap was on the money. Like on the money. You take the fuel out to take it to take it to qualy fuel, and it was a few hundredths off Max’s pole time” during his Silverstone Red Bull test, despite when in reality he was 0.4s/lap slower than Max on average in quali at that circuit. Money Badger is full of hot air and while being dismantled by first Max and then Norris is survivable, he definitely won’t last long with Tsunoda, when Marko already is losing patience. And to think most of F1 “fans” wanted to kick Perez out for this guy…
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
23rd March 2024, 11:01
A beaming smile will only get you so far I’m afraid.
Time to hang-up your racing boots and become a Sky TV pundit, Daniel.
CarWars (@maxv)
23rd March 2024, 11:04
Agreed, he should have not returned.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
23rd March 2024, 11:23
3 races into a long season. Time for your loan to Visa on the. Visor mob to end and get back to the ORBR or whatever they’re called after this race. A lap waving and thanking the crowd, not all bad.
I’m not convinced of Lawson but at least give him 21 races plus sprints to prove himself at F1 level. It’s like a whole induction season anyway. He’d still be third driver, at the real Red Bull and may get a chance if Chekon is forced to miss a race because of licence points.
tielemst
23rd March 2024, 12:03
If Max really does leave RBR that ream is in a world of hurt. You suddenly have Yuki as your number 1 driver, with 2 drivers proving regularly they won’t win for you and Lawson as a rookie.
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
23rd March 2024, 12:55
I think plenty of drivers on the grid would be ready to sign a contract with RBR, like Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz which is not too bad.
Laz
23rd March 2024, 13:37
Norris would cost a lot of money to get out of his recently signed Mclaren contract. Most of the top drivers in F1 have already got contracts. Though there is Alonso, and while I’m no fan of his I would love to see him get a third world championship while in his forties.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
23rd March 2024, 12:18
It’s quite concerning that he’s getting out the car thinking he did a great lap but is this slow. It could be an issue with the car, or perhaps this is his level now? It’s weird, to have a driver openly say they got everything they could out of the car but his team-mate’s dragging it into Q3 and he’s out in Q1.
dan
23rd March 2024, 15:25
Ricciardo is proving every day that Alonso and Hamilton were right. Vettel was in rocketships. Ricciardo came in and made him look silly and Vet ran with his tail between his legs. Hamilton and Vettells cars for 2 season in 17 and 18 were more than evenly matched infact ferrari were clearly quicker. So nice to be proved right in 2013 when the vet fanboys were claiming he was better than Alonso and Hamilton what a wake up call they had. Vettel made Kimi look semi competitivie the same Kimi who made Grosjean look half decent for half a year. So we can all admit Hamilton has won 3 world titles in the 2nd fastest car 08,17,18
Oople
23rd March 2024, 21:47
Or, alternatively, form and performance can fluctuate between seasons for a variety of different factors, and simple-minded comparisons like this are meaningless…
Honda
23rd March 2024, 16:55
Everyone have to simply leave him alone. Honestly Ricciardo is not bad. His Q1 time was some 0.1x slower to Yuki which got deleted. I remember he made a mistake in SPA, eau rouge with track limits, last year as well. The fact is, Yuki is not a slow driver. He is must faster than most people think. So Ricciardo gave his best shot and just made a mistake. However, I do not understand why he cannot admit it. The way he talk as if something is broken with his car which is preventing him to do better lap times.
MichaelN
23rd March 2024, 17:20
That’s something he keeps coming back to as a theme. Maybe it’s true, but in previous years these kind of narratives spun by drivers have sometimes resulted in a change of chassis and these are usually followed by a sort of ‘you didn’t hear it from me’ quote from inside the team that basically says there was nothing odd about the chassis at all, and that it was all in the driver’s head.
It’s a bit concerning for Ricciardo already be in this position now. It’s not a thing he said once. He’s now brought this up a number of times, on different days and even at different races.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
23rd March 2024, 17:35
Unless he can get some points by mid season, RB should think about replacements. There are many talented young drivers and not enough seats on the grid.