RB Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo says he was pleased with Oscar Piastri’s strong showing in the Australian Grand Prix as he believes his compatriot is a “good kid”.
Ricciardo endured an underwhelming return home as he was eliminated in Q1 and failed to progress higher than 12th as his pointless start to the campaign continued.
However, Piastri compensated the Australian fans somewhat with a mature drive to fourth, one place behind McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, who landed a podium.
Piastri replaced Ricciardo at McLaren last season, but the latter, now driving for RB, indicated there were no hard feelings and is satisfied that his countryman delivered.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo also admitted that he relished the whole experience in Melbourne compared to past visits when he was overwhelmed with media commitments.
Asked whether he was glad to see Piastri end up in the points, Ricciardo said: “Yeah it seems to be an Aussie favourite! No, I’m happy.
“Speaking of the week, it was a really good week. I think it was my first year with Renault in particular, I felt like by the Sunday I was just drained and we tried to do too much.
I felt like I just wore myself in. I certainly didn’t feel like that this week, I felt like, even 2022 when we came back after Covid, I had a really good time here. Same this week.
“I don’t put any of my maybe not awesome weekend results down to distractions or too much media appearances or whatever.
“I think everyone was great and respectful of the job that we have to do. The crowd was cool.
“I couldn’t get points, but Oscar did a great top four. He’s a good kid. The more time I spend with him, I like him a lot, and happy that he’s doing well for Aus.”
Piastri had been running in third place when McLaren helped him undercut Norris, but the Woking-based squad then opted to reverse the positions with a team order.
Despite missing out on the chance to be the first Australian classified on the rostrum at their home race, Piastri accepted that McLaren’s intervention was warranted.
“For me, it was completely fair,” he said. “He qualified in front of me yesterday, went a bit longer on the first stop and he was catching me and was quicker at that point of the race.
“At that point, I was keeping with Leclerc and Lando was catching both of us, so I was honestly kind of hoping he’d be past me and go and get Charles.
“Of course, at home, I would have loved to be able to stay in third. But for me, that was completely fair.”
