Ricciardo enthusiastic: 'New design aimed at more spectacle on Sunday'

Formula One returns to Australia for the first time since 2019. Daniel Ricciardo is eager to return to Melbourne and describes racing in his home country as a "privilege". He is also very excited about the revamped layout of the circuit.

Ricciardo twice finished fourth at Albert Park, but has yet to have a podium finish to his name in Melbourne. In 2014 he finished second on behalf of Red Bull Racing and was on the podium for the first time in his F1 career, but not long after he was disqualified due to a violation with the fuel supply.

Ricciardo expects thrilling race in Australia

He is not expected to be able to surpass that result this weekend, but the McLaren driver is looking forward to an exciting race thanks to the modifications that have been made to the track. "It’s exciting to go through the track changes as well this year, see what kind of racing that produces," he says in conversation with Formula1.com.

He continued: "I think with the new design at Albert Park, it's really focused on improving the racing, the spectacle on Sunday, to create more opportunities for overtaking." Ricciardo was one of the drivers consulted about the changes, with the number of corners reduced from sixteen to fourteen. In addition, some corners have been widened or otherwise modified to improve the racing, and in particular the overtaking opportunities.

The Australian explained that Albert Park has always been quite narrow, making overtaking difficult. The mentioned changes would make slipstreaming easier and the circuit now has no less than four DRS zones. Ricciardo is convinced that it should be 'a pretty amazing spectacle'.