Ricciardo Reflects: Experience Key to RB F1 Resilience

Daniel Ricciardo attributes his ability to navigate a tough season start to his experience, highlighting its role in maintaining confidence and focus despite early challenges.

Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he leveraged his experience to stay calm when performance was lacking at the beginning of the year. The RB F1 driver remained confident in his abilities and focused on working with his engineer Pierre Hamelin, ignoring everything else.

“I think, because I’ve been through it, in hindsight, those tough times were important,” Ricciardo said.

“I think back to some periods at McLaren, and that’s why it was so important to have some time off last year because I told myself that if I came back, I couldn’t fall into those traps again.”

“That’s what I feared during the first races this year because I felt good, I was confident—I felt perfectly fine. I wasn’t questioning myself. Of course, I sometimes wondered why we didn’t have the pace, but I didn’t question if I had lost my touch or if I was out of time.”

“It was so important because I feared the team might start to panic. We had to stay on track, not go crazy. We didn’t listen too much to others’ comments and kept telling ourselves that everything was fine, that it would all come together.”

“Experience helped us. We obviously can’t control the narrative everywhere, but at least with me and my engineer, it was very important that we stayed close to each other. And I kind of blocked out some things that didn’t matter.”

RB F1 Still Lacks the Pace to Climb

Ricciardo had a mixed weekend in Miami, with a strong Sprint phase but a difficult qualifying and race. He explains where his current challenges lie and why his poor Saturday qualifying condemned his race.

“It’s not the same in traffic. I could use the pace, have a clear track, and utilize the car’s downforce and grip, but in battles and with dirty air, we struggle.”

“This brings us back to qualifying, which is very important. I was unhappy with the grip I had with that set of tires, but I always look at myself and acknowledge that I could have done a bit better here and there, so I always hold myself accountable for such sessions.”

“We know we’re fast, but not fast enough to start from the back and work our way through the field. We’re just not, so we need to qualify better.”