Daniel Ricciardo arrived in Russia fresh off a Grand Prix victory following a successful race for McLaren at Monza, in which Lando Norris completed the team’s one-two finish. And, while both were still glowing from that victory, neither was predicting a repeat victory in Sochi…

With an impeccable performance in Italy, Ricciardo won his first Grand Prix since Monaco 2018, with Norris securing a one-two finish for McLaren. In the pre-Russian GP news conference, the Australian, who left Red Bull at the end of 2018, was questioned if his latest success served as vindication for his decision to quit the team – and if he felt he’d never win a Grand Prix again, especially after having difficulty finding up to speed at Mclaren.

“I didn’t really think like that, even through the struggles,” said Ricciardo. “I never really got into the mindset of ‘is this it?’ Was Monaco the last time I’ll get there? I knew I’d probably have to work a little bit harder for it at times but no… like last year for example, getting the Renault back on the podium, that was such a target and achieving that, I took a lot of fulfilment and obviously so did the team.

“I mean Monza was, yes, if you like, it did make everything worth it I guess but it was just nice, nice to stand back up there and to do it with another team – there’s certainly a sense of pride in that, in making it work and getting to that top step with another outfit and none other than McLaren so there’s certainly some feelgood stuff about it. I like winning, winning is good so it was good to do it again,” he said.

When asked if he thought he could win in Sochi after winning the Italian Grand Prix, Ricciardo dismissed the idea.

“Ah, come on, mate let’s just chill for a bit,” he replied with a laugh. “We’re just going to keep doing our best. Victory aside, I’ve felt better you know the last few weekends, I’ve felt more comfortable and of course just excited to come racing.”

Similarly, Norris did not expect another McLaren victory in Russia, where Mercedes has won every Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom, with the Briton adding that McLaren’s performance will fluctuate according on the circuit.

When asked if McLaren could win in this race, he answered, “Probably not, but we’ll give it our all and try to maximize everything.” There are clearly tracks we’re better at and others we’re not, but there are always these opportunities that present themselves for us that we’re usually good at taking and being in the right place at the right time.

“I think we had an amazing weekend in Monza… but it doesn’t mean we’re going to be like that every single weekend from now on, we didn’t find anything magical. We just had a bit of a better weekend, things flowed a bit better for us, the car suited the track more and that’s the way it’s going to be for the rest of the season: some track we’re going to struggle more, but how good or bad we’re going to be, I don’t know yet,” he concluded.

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