Despite a disappointing first day of practice for this weekend’s Austrian Formula One Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo of Australia has maintained his calm.
Ricciardo finished 12th in the first practice session at the track in Spielberg, 1.060 seconds behind the leader Max Verstappen.
He slid to 15th place in the second practice session, with a time of 1:05.698, 1.175 seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton, who set the fastest time of the day of 1:04.523, ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen in third.
“It actually didn’t feel that bad,” Ricciardo told F1.com.
“I am a bit surprised with the classification. We’re just lacking a little bit, but there’s nothing which feels out of place with balance in the car, like I assume it’s probably just a little bit everywhere.
“I know there’s not many corners here, but maybe we’re just missing half a tenth (of a second) everywhere, then that obviously adds up to half a second or something, and that’s what we need.”
“It’s probably just some fine tuning tonight. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel.
“I think like with my driving and the points that I missed out last week, and areas I was lacking, I think I definitely made a good step today.
“So it’s just trying to then just make another one [step] tomorrow, and we’ll be in a decent place.”
Ricciardo has had a difficult year so far, with his best results coming in sixth places at the Emilia Romagna, Spain, and France Grand Prix.
With 34 points, he sits ninth in the standings, 122 points behind championship leader — and former Red Bull teammate — Max Verstappen.
Ricciardo had a strong start at the Styrian Grand Prix a week ago, passing plenty of competitors in the first lap to climb to ninth place.
Unfortunately for the Australian, a power problem with his car resulted in a loss of speed, and he dropped to 13th place in the standings.
Ricciardo said after last week he was working on ‘trying to maximise the driving style the car currently likes”.
“We’re getting there, we’re getting there – today was definitely some progress and we’ve changed a few things with the car to help me get that feeling,” Ricciardo said after practice.
“Last Friday we were actually looking pretty good, so if you look at the classification of last week to this week you’ll think we’re miles off, but then Saturday they changed completely — so I have confidence we can move forward for tomorrow.
“I’m not going to panic – a little bit of fine tuning and I think we’ll find what we need tomorrow.”
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