Daniel Ricciardo, who was knocked out of his home qualifying by exceeding the course limits at the first hurdle, said he was at the “limit” of his VCARB 01's potential at the Albert Park circuit.
Already under pressure following Helmut Marko's recent comments that the RB driver was “too slow”, at one point on Saturday Ricciardo was 10th fastest in the opening segment, allowing him to qualify for Q2 at the Australian Grand Prix I thought he might.
“It's not like I was a little unsure like McLaren.”
However, a few minutes later, his 1:17.466 was deleted, dropping him to 18th on the timesheets and 0.6 seconds slower.
He admitted that he knew at that moment that he had taken a wider line than normal, but by the next corner he had forgotten all about it.
“At the time, I knew I was fighting in Turn 4, but I remember taking more curbs than usual, so I knew I was wider than usual. But the funny thing is , you do it, and after turn five I had already forgotten about it, ”he said.
“So I did laps and eventually Pierre [Hamelin, race engineer] To be honest, I forgot all about it. I think it took a while for it to sink in.
“I'm very aware of the track limits and I know that if you go over them you'll lose time. So I'm not arguing about that fact.
“I think deep down there's a part of me that's frustrated that I have to push the car so much at risk.”
Ricciardo had mixed feelings, saying, “This was definitely my best qualifying lap of the year, and normally my laps are pretty good.''
However, he was still surprised by his inferiority to Yuki Tsunoda.
“For me, I was happy and I felt like I gave it my all, but when I realized that it wasn't enough, and I compared it to Yuki, for example, it was for me…well, I was still a little confused. ” he said.
“I know what those laps usually mean, and I crossed the line like, 'Oh, that was a good lap,' but usually those laps are good enough, more than good enough, but , still not. And if you look at his time in Q2, you can see that he can't shave another 7 tenths off the time he got in Q1.
“So I think there will be some truck evolution, but to be honest, there are still some things we have to consider, because it has definitely been a struggle so far.”
But it's completely different from when he was at McLaren.
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“When I drove this car, I felt confident in everything, including braking and balance. “Certainly, you can see that some of the corner speeds are just not getting enough speed,” he added.
“I feel like I’m at the limit of this car in terms of four-wheel sliding and things like that, so it’s balanced and I feel like I’m at the limit of its potential now.
“After Saudi, we checked a few things across the car and the team has changed quite a bit and we've got quite a few new parts in this weekend to address some of those issues and concerns. He provided it.
“It looked better, but I'm still not completely convinced, but like I said, we still feel like we're struggling more than usual and the car is very Is pleased”
It wasn't like, “Oh, I'm really struggling here or there, it was actually a pretty good car to drive.'' Only the lap times prove otherwise.''
The Australian faces a tough challenge for points on Sunday, but will be hoping a two-stop strategy and tire wear will help him flourish.
“I don't know,” he said when asked when he would be able to compete from the back row of the grid. “I don't even know if I understand it, and I don't think I understand it from the starting point. It hurts for sure. The only thing that makes me optimistic is that the home crowd is great.
“I think it's probably going to be a two-stop race with some tire wear, but that will give us a little bit more of a chance. If we can handle the tires a little bit better, we might be able to offer something, some graining and some other things. I hope there are some players who are struggling with that.''
“I hope I can run through the field, but yeah, it’s still a little bit… I’m still wrapping my head around what the lap times are for this car right now.”
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