Ricciardo seeks blame elsewhere again and puts mechanics to work

Daniel Ricciardo has had a poor start to the 2024 Formula 1 season. The Australian is under immediate pressure as a result and is himself aware that things need to improve. Speaking to F1TV, Ricciardo partly agrees to that blame is partially on himself, but also has his questions about the performance of his car.

"It's been a slower start to the season than I certainly expected and would have liked," Ricciardo began with understatement after the Australian Grand Prix. For the third weekend in a row, Ricciardo was beaten by Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying and only in Bahrain did Ricciardo finish ahead of his teammate on race day. Then, too, with the help of a team order.

"I think this it's a two-part process now, I think there’s... Obviously I look as much as I can into myself, into data, into onboards, how I’m driving, what's making me do certain things and then is that self-induced, or is that something coming from the car which isn't giving me the feeling I want. And then I’m asking the engineers lots of questions."

Ricciardo seeks blame outside himself

With that last sentence, Ricciardo makes the switch to what he believes could also be the problem: the car. "The car is pretty much the same as last year. Obviously, it's a different car, but it's not that we've changed the whole philosophy, and the handling, the characteristics are fairly similar, so I think that's why we're probably a little bit maybe unsure why we are struggling so much, and obviously Yuki's certainly very comfortable with it."

"I’m trying to get them [VCARB engineers] to go around the car with the magnifying glass as well, make sure nothing's obviously nothing's off. As a driver you put everything you can into it, but you want to ask as many questions as possible and make sure that yes, we got everything as it should. So I’m sure we'll find something and keep our head straight and keep our eyes on the prize I guess."

Ricciardo seems to be hinting at a problem with his car with those statements. Whereas Tsunoda drove to the points with the same car, Ricciardo did not even get out of Q1. The Australian made the mistake himself, but also points to a problem with his car for that mistake.

"Obviously yesterday was yes, my mistake, but I think there was frustration, because I kind of feel like I’m not this… I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but it's like I had to work too hard for it, and I was forced to probably drive out of my skin to get that time out of it, and obviously then make that error and go off track."