Daniel Ricciardo had a painful start to his career in McLaren, with him lacking in performance compared to his teammate Landi Norris, while also losing against Ferrari for P3 before France.
The Australian F1 Driver now had a stunning performance at the Paul Ricard circuit with his P6 finish, just behind his teammate, giving an 18 point haul to McLaren. Reflecting on this result, McLaren boss Andreas Seidl feels that the integration period of Ricciardo is over.
“Definitely, it was a good weekend for the team, a good weekend for Daniel Ricciardo being back in Q3 and having this strong drive in the afternoon is showing the approach we took together with him as a team is paying off,” said Seidl.
“I’m simply looking forward now for going to Austria, the same track two times in a row and also, again, a more normal racetrack and I am confident that this integration process is history.”
Suggesting to Seidl the French GP was a turning point, he replied: “It is just a continuation of the journey he is on together with us.
“As we said at the beginning of the weekend, we could already see in the race in Baku that he had made a good step then, unfortunately, he had a crash in qualifying.”
Daniel Ricciardo and Mclaren hoping to secure more in Austria
The double-header in Austria is a crucial race for McLaren to cement their stand in the championship this year, while Ferrari faces a setback from a blank in France last Sunday.
Last year, McLaren had a brilliant result in Spielberg, as he secured his first career podium by achieving P3, giving a solid start to the Woking based team in 2020.
It remains to be seen whether McLaren could replicate the same performance almost after a year.
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