Daniel Ricciardo says he’s going to maintain pushing his RB crew to seek out enhancements to its 2024 automotive so he can “kick some ass” at his house race in Australia subsequent weekend.
RB was touted because the probably crew to bridge the hole between the underside 5 and high 5 System 1 groups over the winter, after a powerful end to 2023. Nonetheless, the brand new automotive proved troublesome to extract efficiency from within the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and Ricciardo (pictured above with crew principal Laurent Mekies) says he intends to be the driving pressure behind the push for additional good points earlier than Melbourne.
“Actually, some issues with the automotive, like with regards to producing effectivity and all the things, only a few issues didn’t fairly add up,” Ricciardo mentioned. “Bahrain, I knew that it was extra me — like qualifying, I knew I left a while on the desk. I left a few tenths. However when it form of plateaus and the others maintain enhancing, it’s additionally a little bit of an indication. So I might really feel that that was the restrict of the automotive.
“We did discover some issues afterwards. However then you definitely’ve bought parc ferme. And to be sincere, even when we didn’t have parc ferme, it’s most likely nothing we are able to repair in 24 hours. So I’m certain a couple of issues would return to the manufacturing facility and are available again with a contemporary automotive in Melbourne.
“I’ll clearly put this weekend behind and simply push the crew laborious. (In Jeddah) I stayed fairly late to try to assist everybody discover the problems and it’s simply as much as me now to maintain on ’em. I do know they need it as dangerous as I do. So guarantee that we have now a very good package deal into Melbourne after which, yeah, let’s say my season will begin there and kick some ass.”
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Ricciardo is bound the, VCARB 01 has much more potential than it’s proven so far. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Photos)
Ricciardo says the powerful begin to the yr hasn’t knocked his confidence that RB can have a powerful season, as he feels extra potential within the automotive than is presently being seen.
“We discovered a couple of issues over the course of the weekend. We’re heading into the race all the time upbeat and optimistic that possibly one thing occurs. However I feel it was all the time going to be an uphill battle. We merely don’t have all the things performing at 100%. So we see a couple of flaws, truthfully, with the automotive. So we’ve bought to get that mounted for the subsequent one.
“The explanation I’m staying optimistic is as a result of I do know that we had some issues fallacious. With a very good automotive and all the things sorted, I do know we are able to do loads higher. So, a painful three days, however I don’t need it to take any confidence out of us. It hasn’t been the beginning that we wished, nevertheless it’s race two and Melbourne’s subsequent. So yeah, huge push for everybody to get it proper and we’ll have a very good weekend.”
