Daniel Ricciardo embarks on a full Formula 1 season, rejuvenated and fully prepared, signaling a promising phase in his career with RB F1.
Daniel Ricciardo feels ready to embark on a full Formula 1 season again after making a mid-year return last season. At the dawn of the RB F1 team’s existence, the Australian is poised to rejuvenate his career and is proud of having prepared for the season in a productive manner.
“Unlike last year, this time I had the benefit of a real pre-season. After 2022, I needed that break, so it was good to come back mid-season, but in terms of full preparation, this year has been a better way to get ready,” Ricciardo notes.
Ricciardo Embraces Career’s Second Chapter
“I feel like this is the start of the second part of my career. Having some downtime gives you a fresh perspective. I’m very focused on what is a second chance for me, but at the same time, I’m not putting pressure on myself.”
“Like everyone, I’ve only had a few hours of testing with this year’s car. Naturally, a new car is an improvement over the previous one, but what matters is where we stand in comparison to everyone else. Have we progressed more than them, or have they progressed more than us?”
“It’s true that we feel better, but we’re only as good as the competition allows us to be. I’ve stayed in Bahrain since the test, and with the engineers, we’ve spent many hours analyzing all the data from the three days on track.”
“I really like Bahrain; it’s a beautiful circuit and a great place to start the season. It’s a real challenge, especially for the rear tires, because the track is very bumpy. I’ve had good times there, never stepping onto the podium, but I’ve scored a lot of points. Of course, the first race of the season has something special about it.”
“When you haven’t raced for several months, it’s a bit more intense. You can spend time in the simulator driving on the circuit, but you can’t train to race intensely, wheel-to-wheel, with 19 of the world’s best drivers, and that makes for a quite exciting feeling at the first race of the year.”
“High-quality work” during testing
His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, discusses his expectations following winter testing: “We’re on the verge of starting the race after three solid days of testing for us, though, with all teams having different programs, we can’t pinpoint our performance level.”
“We spent the time focusing on ourselves, working on understanding the car. The work we did was of high quality, we completed a significant number of laps reliably, and achieved our goals without any major issues, which is positive.”
“The work was very productive, and we got answers in many areas where we had questions. I think it’s very important to spend time with everyone before the season starts, and as I stayed in Bahrain after testing, I organized a football match with the team, which was a lot of fun.”
“We played in the late afternoon when it cooled down a bit, and actually, it was a bit cold! One evening, I had dinner with my engineers and my side of the garage, and another day, I played golf with my trainer and one of the team’s marketing managers.”
“I wouldn’t say we’ve made a huge step forward from the last race and the last test of 2023 in Abu Dhabi, but that’s partly because we introduced updates that were already intended for 2024.”
“Last week, we saw once again that they work well and that the team has adopted the right philosophy with the car, which seems to behave well without extreme oversteering or understeering. It has made a step forward mechanically, so I’d say we have a good starting point for this season, with further developments to come.”
“A clear sense of change” in the team
Tsunoda is pleased with the team’s evolution, transitioning from AlphaTauri to RB F1 this winter, and continuing to grow: “Many new people joined the team over the winter, and it was noticeable during testing. There’s a clear sense of change.”
“Laurent is similar to Franz in that he cares about every team member. I’d say it was different, in a good way. We’ve always been hungry, but this time, we feel hungry in a different way.”
“After three days of testing here, we have a good baseline for the start of free practice, and I’m satisfied with my lap times. We focused a lot on the technical side to understand how the car reacts and started to narrow down the testing items we needed to look at and the areas we needed to focus on for the race itself.”
“We conducted many different tests, and this week, it’s time to put all that together and focus more on qualifying. There are many areas we can explore with this car, and our main goal from Thursday will be to extract as much performance as possible. The first race of the season is always a bit different because you don’t know what to expect and which teams will be fast. There’s really mystery and excitement!”
Ricciardo F1 Season Start 2024. 2024 Ricciardo F1 Season Start. Ricciardo F1 Season Start
- Alpine F1’s Resolve: Rising from 2024’s Rocky Start
- Following us on Facebook and Twitter.
