Daniel Ricciardo “didn’t feel like the car was on” in his second race with AlphaTauri in a reminder expectations might need to be tempered in his return to the F1 grid.
Ricciardo ticked all the boxes in his first race back in Hungary, finishing 13th in a solid race, but it was a forgettable weekend in Belgium as he finished 16th.
The Aussie veteran’s weekend was always going to be an uphill battle after he lost his best time in qualifying, meaning he had to start the Belgian Grand Prix from 19th place.
There were some bright moments including a 10th place finish in the sprint race and when Ricciardo overtook former McLaren teammate Lando Norris — a move Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle said “would have taken a certain amount of satisfaction”.
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Ricciardo also finished behind his new AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who had a bit more zip in his car on his way to 10th.
“I felt quite, let’s say, limited today in terms of pace,” Ricciardo said, per Autosport.
“I think even in clear air I was struggling a lot. Honestly, just getting the front [end], all through the middle sector, all the high speed [sections], I was just washing, washing [out].
“It was probably not that we weren’t turning the tyres on, but probably just not producing enough grip, and then I was sliding and overheating really quickly.
“In clear air, we didn’t break away from the pack, we couldn’t. It felt like they were able to get more out of their tyres early. So then I was normally getting overtaken, while we all had fresh tyres.
“And then when it settled, I’d have a bit better pace, but stuck behind them. And then obviously, we know that’s not good for tyres as well. So a bit of a tough race.
“I don’t want to be too discouraged, it was our only dry session all weekend, so it could be something simple with set-up, we went the wrong way, and that’s that. But yeah, I just wish I could have been able to attack a little more.”
“I was always around cars that were really quick on the straight as well. So I was watching a lot of gearboxes today.”
All in all it was a race to forget for Ricciardo, who now enters F1’s month long summer break with the realisation it will be difficult to snag championship points this season in one of the slower cars on the grid.
“For me today, I didn’t feel like the car was on,” he added.
“So even for the given downforce I felt like with a new tyre we weren’t really getting that peak out of it.
“And I wasn’t really feeling it kind of bite and load up. So that’s probably the thing where we’ll obviously try to understand where we missed.
“Especially with the rain all weekend, the track felt green, it did feel like it was pretty average conditions. The race pace felt quite slow. So all these things probably contribute. It’s all learning.
“I think as well I’m always going to be quite hard on myself. But I shouldn’t be expecting the world at the moment. It’s all learning, but hopefully we’ll get a few more answers.
“In saying that, I’m glad again I got the race distance. A lot to learn, a lot to feedback to the team. I saw Yuki got 10th. So it looked like he had a decent race. So try to learn a bit from that as well.”
Speaking on his LinkedIn page this week, Ricciardo said even though he was offered the AlphaTauri seat earlier than expected, he had enough time to “reset” after his exit from McLaren last year.
“At the end of last year I knew I needed some time off and I didn’t want to say yes to any opportunity,” he said.
“At the time I wanted to take what I thought was probably going to be 12 months off. It was maybe a little more than six months, but the truth and the important thing was I felt like I reset.
“I felt like I found that fuel, that hunger again. Saying yes was probably earlier than I anticipated but deep down I knew it was right. It felt pretty nice saying yes to this opportunity that lies ahead now.
“I felt like I haven’t really left it so now jumping into a race seat doesn’t feel so foreign or far away.”
Ricciardo might need every ounce of his rejuvenated positive attitude to get through the season, which risks being a repeat of when he struggled to crack the top 10 at McLaren.
The F1 season will resume at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday August 27.