Daniel Ricciardo thinks that teammate Lando Norris’ pace in Bahrain is an accurate representation of McLaren’s pace.
McLaren did not have an ideal weekend in Bahrain. Both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo failed to place themselves within the top 10 shootouts throughout the weekend.
Norris qualified P13 in Bahrain while Ricciardo went third slowest in the timesheets as they were struggling with some brake-related issues. Even on the race day, the drivers could not finish in the top 10 and score any points.
The Australian driver explained the condition of the new MCL36 by taking Norri’s pace in qualifying as a reference. He said that Norris has shown from last year that he is a very good reference. “I looked at his lap in Q2 and it was only good enough for 13th but the lap looked pretty good,” he further added.
Ricciardo thinks so is the case with McLaren for at least the Bahrain track as his teammate’s pace was a true indication of McLaren’s pace.
He believes that as much as he would love to say that he would have found more pace if he had done the testing, Norris did a decent lap.
Asked if he believes that McLaren has a car to score points in the coming race, Ricciardo said, “at the moment, no.”
“But maybe we go to another track and it all of a sudden makes the car look a little better but points were not on the cards this weekend,” he further added.
Also Read: Daniel Ricciardo explains why he treated the Bahrain GP as a test-session
Daniel Ricciardo thinks McLaren needs several improvements
The previous year, McLaren was competing with Ferrari for the top 3 positions. But this year, with the new technical regulations, McLaren has gone off on the wrong foot.
As the MCL36 is far away from its usual competitors and also losing edge in the midfield, they might see stiff competition from Haas.
“Starting from pretty much the back, we knew it wouldn’t be an easy race. We had some challenges,” said Ricciardo. “Look, I’m glad we got the race distance in, especially for me, the first one I’ve done all year.
“[It was good] to learn the car more, [give] feedback to the team, some interesting things to feel, and some places where I felt the car was good.”
“But overall obviously we still have I think a few more weaknesses than strengths, so [we will] try and give that info to the team and assist them as much as possible now.”
“We’d love to be up on the podium here at race one but we’re obviously a long way from that, but the only way to improve it is to work together and address as much as we can in the most efficient way possible.”
Also Read: Daniel Ricciardo admits McLaren is currently not competitive in 2022
