RB’s Daniel Ricciardo is confident he can build up from the Chinese Grand Prix as he feels it marked a potential turnaround point for his Formula 1 fortunes in 2024.
The Australian has not endured the best start to the campaign, failing to score a point compared to team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who has bagged seven in five rounds.
A more encouraging outing in China last time out was derailed when Lance Stroll ran into Ricciardo under the Safeti Car, causing race-ending damage to his machine.
However, speaking ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Ricciardo regards Shanghai as still a positive weekend as he cited that he felt more comfortable in the VCARB 01.
“I definitely felt a lot better in China. Hopefully that’s the real start of my season,” Ricciardo told media including Motorsport Week. “Everything felt a bit more like normal.
“I don’t want to say effortless like we’re all trying and nothing is going to come easy, even if Max [Verstappen] is winning as much as he is, it’s never effortless.
“You still put all the work in and stuff. It certainly did come to me a bit more naturally and easier, the lap time was kind of more what I expected to see.
“So certainly some positives. So yeah, keep it going.”
Ricciardo’s chassis change provided a talking point in China and he reckons his improved showing suggests there was something wrong with his launch-spec version.
“The first four races for me were… yeah, interesting,” he commented.
“So if these next four are different, then I will confidently say OK something must have been up with that. I say the next four, hopefully, the whole season, but ask me now in three races’ time.
“Things will always keep coming that improve the lap time and the stopwatch. A lot of it comes down to feeling and being comfortable.
“There was, honestly something that once it hit the track in China, I did feel like I had a bit more control in obviously my hands and what I can do with the car.
“So whether that is a physical change that is something the chassis provided me, that just gave me a bit more feeling and predictability really, what the car is going to do when I turn the wheel basically, so that was good.
“And look, setup things you’re always trying to find a bit of comfort, but this was something fundamental that for whatever reason seemed I was missing in the first few races. It was back in China, so it should continue.”
