Daniel Ricciardo showed some frustration in F1 Saudi Arabian GP spin, as he notes about seeing flaws with the car which needs to be fixed.
Coming into the season, there was lot of hype around Ricciardo with one eye on the Red Bull seat. But the first two F1 rounds has been underwhelming especially against Visa Cash App RB’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda as he has been behind the Japanese.
Ricciardo accepted his limitations in Bahrain, but for Saudi Arabia, he reckoned that they found some flaws which needs to be fixed for the future races. The grand prix also saw him spinning which he joked was done so in frustration.
“I did just take a bit too much kerb, which caused the spin,” said Ricciardo to media. “I’m not intending on taking that much kerb, you could say just probably a little bit of frustration, maybe on my part. I’m not trying to spin excuses… but my drink didn’t work, I’ll use that as an excuse (laughing).
“Honestly, we found a few things over the course of the weekend. We found a few things over the course of the weekend. We’re heading into the race always upbeat and optimistic that maybe something happens. But I think it was always going to be an uphill battle. We simply don’t have everything functioning at 100%.
“So we see a few flaws, honestly, with the car. So we’ve got to get that fixed for the next one. As I said, the race itself, safety car, everyone pitted, and we had a really slow stop. Then we’re in that train. At the end, then just to make sure, I made my mistake as well, I had a spin at Turn 1. I didn’t want the team to feel left out.
“Definitely a tricky one but the reason I’m staying optimistic is because I know that we had some things wrong. With a good car and everything sorted, I know we can do a lot better. So, a painful three days, but I don’t want it to take any confidence out of us. It hasn’t been the start that we wanted, but it’s race two and Melbourne’s next.
“So yeah, big push for everyone to get it right and we’ll have a good weekend,” summed up Ricciardo, who when pushed to note what are the things that he and or the team has found in the two weekends, the Australian added:
“Honestly, some things with the car, like when it comes to producing efficiency and everything, just a few things didn’t quite add up. Bahrain, I knew that it was more me — like qualifying, I knew I left some time on the table. I left a couple of tenths. But when it kind of plateaus and the others keep improving, it’s also a bit of a sign.
“So I could feel that that was the limit of the car. We did find some things afterwards. But then you’ve got parc ferme. And to be honest, even if we didn’t have parc ferme, it’s probably nothing we can fix in 24 hours. So I’m sure a few things would go back to the factory and come back with a fresh car in Melbourne.”
Here’s Yuki Tsunoda on the move against Kevin Magnussen
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