Daniel Ricciardo is "not angry" after media criticism

Daniel Ricciardo hasn't had the dream start to his career at Renault. The Australian has received some criticism from the media, but he greets it with acceptance.

His first two races in Renault colours ended in retirement, similar to how his long term relationship with Red Bull ended. His points from the Chinese Grand Prix has made the drivers' standings prettier for him, but that hasn't stopped the critics.

"When you're at the top level of any sport, people always have an expectation you should be at that top every single day," Ricciardo said in an interview on F1i.

"You have in, imagine, football: one guy gets a hat-trick and in the next two games doesn't score a goal. It's like, what's happened? But maybe one or two weeks ago he was the king of the show.

"I accept it. For sure, it's short-term, but that's probably in all top sports. I'm not angry about that. I get it," he sighed. "It's all good. I haven't done anything to make me forget how to drive."

Last year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a horror event for Ricciardo. He crashed with his then teammate Max Verstappen, but in 2017 he managed to win the race. Going into the fourth race of the season, Ricciardo hopes to keep the positive vibe inside his garage.

"It feels good, probably just for my guys in the garage. So for them, a couple of high fives going around. Baku has been interesting for me. I’ve had high points, like the crazy win in 2017. [That] was a wild race, it was like we were karting and all of us were kids again," he added.