Daniel Ricciardo talks about the areas where he is losing against Lando Norris in the same car as the F1 veteran fails to remain consistent.
Daniel Ricciardo has been inconsistent this season while competing for McLaren. While his season with them piqued in Italy, he hasn’t scored a single point in the last three races.
Meanwhile, his teammate Lando Norris, who is a decade younger, has been the sole support for McLaren. But even he has failed to pull needed results for McLaren, primarily because of unfortunate race developments.
Yet, it can be said that Norris is performing better than Ricciardo. Even after 20 races, Ricciardo massively lags against him, and the 32-year-old reveals where he is losing to his teammate.
“These kind of long, medium-speed corners is just where I think our car is challenged the most, and that’s where, call it the McLaren style, is the one and only style to get it through those corners quickly,” said Ricciardo.
“I think that’s where Lando is definitely doing a better job in those corners and I’m still not quite nailing it. It’s really just the way you went into the corner, combine the brake with the turn in.”
“Let’s say, I’m trying to get it to do something, and it still turns, but it doesn’t get through the corners quick. It’s just half a tenth, but half a tenth in these long corners adds up to three, four-tenths.
“So it’s really just that, and it’s definitely, call it a weakness of the car, but it’s ultimately still a weakness of me not being able to get the car working well in the limited areas.”
Daniel Ricciardo explains what led to a poor start in Qatar
Ricciardo had a terrible start to his race in Losail. So much that he failed to bounce back and finished the race at P12. This result gave no relief to McLaren against Ferrari, who once again extended their lead over them.
“I was in the middle [of two cars] and there’s a lot of dust, so that maybe hurts a little bit of visibility,” said Ricciardo. “I was like, ‘OK, I can’t see enough in front’.”
“So I’m trying to look [for] brake boards and I couldn’t see any. Part of me was like, ‘F**k, maybe I’ve missed him’. So I was [thinking], ‘I have to brake soon, otherwise, I’m going ten-pin bowling’.”
“That’s what happens when you start so far back, so I guess I’ll take accountability for that.”
Also read: McLaren team principal is not happy with how FIA let Max Verstappen go unpunished
