Daniel Ricciardo admits overestimating Renault and overdriving the situation, as he has had two failures in the first two races
Daniel Ricciardo took a leap of faith and made the switch from Red Bull to Ricciardo, following a tumultuous time with the Red Bull car and the management behind the scenes.
Red Bull were slightly guilty of channeling all their energies towards Verstappen, neglecting Ricciardo a little bit, something that did not go down well with the Aussie star.
He thus decided to move on, but couldn’t really find any suitors at Ferrari or Mercedes and hence had to look at the F1 midfield for his next project. Renault’s data and vision seemed promising enough for Ricciardo, who also had the option of moving to McLaren, which is performing decently well this season.
❌OUT – The @RenaultF1Team cars of @HulkHulkenberg and @danielricciardo have BOTH broken down at the same time!
— Autosport (@autosport) March 31, 2019
However, Renault excited him most and he felt the works team could really challenge the F1 elite.
Two races into the 2019 season and the Aussie has already admitted to overestimating Renault and underestimating the gap to the top of the pile in F1. The Aussie has also gone onto explain how things are different when you come to midfield team, how there is less grip and how you need to understand that you can’t do what you could in a top car.
“I knew it would take time, but in my heart, I just expected to jump in the car, first lap be like sweet, we are going to be good,” Daniel Ricciardo said.
“So coming a step back as far as grip and handling, it is no secret that we are not on the pace of the car I had last year. So that is something I need to figure out again.
“Everything becomes easier, you have more grip, and it is like, oh wow the car can do this?
“So trying to come back down to figure out the best way it is the moment. For yesterday for sure and in Melbourne, I was overdriving the situation.
“A bit of patience and discipline for me, but that is cool. It is challenging in itself to learn that and figure it out. In a way that is exciting, so that is cool.” he added.
