Andreas Seidl speaks on helping Daniel Ricciardo as much in F1 2022 as the Australian admits about not getting 100% feel from the car.
For Ricciardo, it has been a tough season to say the least. He had a tough time starting at McLaren in 2021 and this season has not been too hot either. His best result so far has been a sixth place at Melbourne and his season even since then has been non-descript.
Team boss Seidl is concerned and the question now is how McLaren as a team can help the popular Aussie going forward. “As always after a race weekend, it doesn’t matter what the result is or how the race weekend went,” he said to media including FormulaRapida.net. “The thing I do is thank my drivers for trying hard all weekend and doing the job they did on track and then equally important as we always did to stay calm and focused and committed on both sides which Daniel is and we are.
“As always we analyse how a race weekend went. The analysis of why for example it was difficult to extract the maximum from the car compared to Lando. We will do some simulator work before we head to Baku and then hopefully we can make another small step in these next races in order to get Daniel to be one hundred per cent feeling comfortable with the car especially when it comes to qualifying and when you have to push it to the absolute limit,” summed up Seidl.
If anything, Seidl and McLaren have the utmost faith in him and that is good to see. At the same token there are still 15 races to run so all may not be lost for Ricciardo. Ever popular, it is a great shame that it is not panning out as planned and since his home race in Melbourne, it has been total gloom.
Like last season, he found it tough to adapt to the car. “I think it’s still more than I like to be getting out of it, which sometimes I can see and sometimes it’s less clear,” said Ricciardo. “I think we’ve also had a few things that have not gone, let’s say, our way interrupted some of the sessions”.
“So it’s a combination of a few things, but I think, even putting that aside, yeah, it’s still been a little bit tricky for me to always like gel 100% with the car and feel like I can pull out these… I’m trying to say spectacular laps, but that sounds like I’m really bigging myself up! But yeah, just to pull out those heaters. I guess”.
“It has been more tricky. For sure. There’s been some races sometimes where it’s been good, but we’re honestly still working on it. I’d love to say I’m going to be half a second quicker and awesome every race from now. I mean, I’d love to, and I’m working to get that but yes, it’s still a bit of a process,” summed up Ricciardo.
The Australian has been in the firing line for a while. Possibly one of the most popular drivers ever, it is a great shame to see him struggling to adapt. If McLaren can help and point him in the right direction and soon, this will go a long way to helping Ricciardo regain the confidence from times gone by.
Here’s Andreas Seidl praising Lando Norris
Here’s Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo on how Monaco GP panned out