23/03/2024
NEWS STORY
Out-qualified by his teammate for the third time this season, Daniel Ricciardo admits to being totally baffled by his ongoing lack of performance.
Having made it into Q2 by going tenth, the Australian appeared to have finally got the monkey off his back following a topsy-turvy weekend.
However, in a few brief seconds his world came tumbling down, as first teammate Yuki Tsunoda went seventh and the stewards deleted his own time for exceeding track limits, thereby making Ricciardo one of four drivers to miss the cut.
In a week in which Helmut Marko had taken time off from the Christian Horner saga in order to tell the Australian to raise his game, it was the last thing he needed.
"I knew at the time, Turn 4, I was fighting it," he subsequently told reporters. "I remember taking more kerb than I usually do, so I knew I was wider than usual. But it's funny, you do it, and already after Turn 5, I've forgotten about it.
"It took a while for it to sink in," he said of the call to tell him that he was out. "The lap itself, I was happy with from my side, I felt like I got everything out of it. When I saw it still wasn't good enough compared to Yuki... well I'm still a bit puzzled because I know what those laps normally mean, and I crossed the line being like 'yeah, that was a good one'. Those ones are normally enough, more than enough, and it's still not.
"Then, looking at the time he's doing in Q2, I could tell you now, I can't get seven more tenths out of it than what I got in Q1," he added, referring to his teammate's Q2 time.
"I'm sure there's a bit of track evo, but honestly, there's still some things we've got to look at because it's been definitely a struggle so far.
"It was definitely the best qualifying lap that I've done this year," he insisted. "Going into Q2, I don't know where there was much more time. You obviously take a couple of tenths from track evo, but six, seven-tenths, that's not in it.
"I think from a balance and everything..." he continued. "To be clear, with the car I've felt, I feel confident in terms of braking and balance and all that. It's not like McLaren where I was a bit unsure and I can't push the car here.
"But yeah, you just, some corner speeds I see... I'm simply not able to gain enough speed. I feel like I'm at the edge with the car in terms of like four-wheel sliding, so it's balance, and I feel now I'm at the limit of where its potential is.
"After Saudi, we saw some things across cars, the team changed quite a lot and gave me quite a few new parts for this weekend to address some of those issues and concerns. It looked like it was better, but I still, I'm still not fully convinced.
"We still feel like we're struggling more than we normally are in a car that again I'm pretty happy with. It's not like I'm like, yeah it's really struggling here or here, it's actually been a pretty nice car to drive. Just the lap time is proving otherwise."
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