Daniel Ricciardo has said in an interview that one of the points he wants to improve for 2018 is his ability to adapt his driving to the car set up. So far, the Aussie driver has always been a sensitive driver with the set-up, and he would change it rather to adapt to it.
Daniel Ricciardo is a very fast, very aggressive driver, but he is also a perfectionist who needs that everything in the car is perfectly working to perform his best. The Australian driver said in an interview that he has always tried to change the set-up until finding the perfect point.
“In the past, I feel some of my strength has been my ability to feel the car,” Ricciardo told. “I’m quite sensitive to things and therefore in the past it’s been good for tyre management.”
But this way of working kas not worked that well since the new 2017 cars were introduced: “They’re trickier to understand, trickier to find the right formula.” Said the Aussie, a GP winner in 2017. “Sometimes it’s to my detriment, where I would probably be better off driving through something as opposed to being ‘oh, we need to change that or change that’.”
The Red Bull driver considers that the new tyres have been the major change and the most challenging one this year: “On a smooth surface they slide a lot and I think a lot of the time, I have got to acknowledge the car is not going to be perfect.” He stated about the new Pirellis. “It’s low grip, the tyre is quite slow at warming up, so it’s going to slide, it’s going to feel a bit of a handful. Just go out there and it’s not going to be perfect but just do what you’ve got with what you’ve got.”
“Maybe sometimes I’ll try and set up the car and try and fix it when it’s never really going to be fixed.” He said about his routine of constantly changing the set-up. “Maybe sticking with one set-up for longer in the weekend and learning how to drive that set-up the best. There are a few times we’ve got a little bit lost and changed too many things. It’s also natural because you want a better car – ‘it’s understeering here so let’s try and fix that’. It then creates another problem and you just end up in a bit of a vicious cycle.”
Ricciardo‘s new machine for the 2018 season, the RB14, will be unveiled the 19th of February and driven for the first time one week later, the 26th, the day when the official pre-season testing in Montmeló starts.
