‘I am pretty clear where our weaknesses lay,’ Daniel Ricciardo reassures fans that McLaren will bounce back
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McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo
The much-awaited return of the Formula 1 race week was a nightmare for the “Honey Badger” McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie was unable to participate in the practice session after he was diagnosed with Covid-19, which forced him to undergo isolation.
Though he was able to recover from Covid before the race weekend a lack of preparedness showed in his qualifying and practice runs as he failed to get a hold of the car and push it to the limits. The McLaren challenger MCL 36 also didn’t help Daniel Ricciardo as the car was only able to produce a below-par performance which inflicted the P14 and P15 finish to him and his teammate Lando Norris respectively.
Now the 32-year-old has come forth suggesting that he and McLaren have an idea of what the car’s weaknesses are and added that they will try to work around it soon saying “I am pretty clear where our weaknesses lay in the race. So we will try to understand that and work on those”.
“We still have a few more weaknesses than strengths,” Daniel Ricciardo’s post-race reaction in Bahrain after P14 finish
Daniel Ricciardo acknowledged in the post-race interview that the Bahrain track was tricky and added that he was treating the race as a test session as it is the first full race distance he was able to do this year. He added that though he is happy about the race distance the car lack speed and a bit of downforce which he is concerned about.
“It was definitely tricky. I think as well, there is a lot to try and understand. I knew there would be. It is the first race distance I have done this year and trying all compounds in the race, I think it was trying to treat it like a test session as well, trying to learn as much as I could each lap,” Daniel Ricciardo said.
“Obviously, we are lacking some pace. I think it is general, I don’t think it is necessarily just one area. We lack a little bit of downforce and that is really the key. I’m glad we got the race distance in, especially for me, it’s really the first race distance I’ve done,” Daniel Ricciardo added.
Daniel Ricciardo went on to say he tried every tire compound as well as some interesting things during the race to understand the car and give feedback to the team. He added that though he felt good about the car at some places it has a few more weaknesses than strengths.
“So just to learn the car more, feedback to the team, I tried every [tire] compound as well during the race – just some interesting things to feel and also some places where I thought the car was good. Overall, obviously, we still have a few more weaknesses than strengths,” Daniel Ricciardo said.
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