Daniel Ricciardo says Renault has to “brush off” its Suzuka exclusion and look forward, rather than dwell on its series of setbacks this season.
Renault has endured a problematic 2019 campaign as anticipated year-on-year progress failed to materialise, while a series of issues have also hampered its prospects.
Renault’s chances of securing P4 in the standings were dealt a blow on Wednesday when it was disqualified from the Japanese Grand Prix results for using a driver aid.
Renault hinted its unhappiness at the development but opted against an appeal.
“We have to brush it off and move forward,” insisted Ricciardo. “If we keep dwelling on the misfortunes or whatever circumstances we’ve had this year then we’ll probably always feel sorry for ourselves.
“But I do feel like this year it’s been tough for us to get momentum and coming in as a team with pretty high expectations to build on what they had last year, and it hasn’t really been that way so far.
“And when we do get something going something like this happens or my penalty in Singapore. It’s been hard for us to have momentum and have a real string of races. I feel like something always seems to be getting in the way.
“But again, if we just sit here and say poor us then we aren’t really going to move forwards. There’s nothing else to do.
“If there’s a mistake we’ve made to try and learn from then sure, otherwise let’s just… We’ve got a double-header and I think for everyone in the paddock this is probably the favourite double-header of the year so I think we just use that happiness and positivity to try and get some good results.”
Ricciardo added that “yes we’re angry and frustrated, but as a team we are like ‘screw this and let’s go get these points we lost’, so it’s motivation.
“You use the bad days as motivation I think that’s the best thing and the good days you appreciate them. I think it’s important to celebrate the good days.”
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