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RICCIARDO: THIS IS WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR

Daniel Ricciardo scored his best result since joining Renault - Photo: LAT

By Bruce Williams

Daniel Ricciardo scored his best result since joining Renault - Photo: LAT

Daniel Ricciardo scored his best result since joining Renault – Photo: LAT

Daniel Ricciardo earned his best race result yet since he joined the Renault team when he finished fourth in the Italian Grand Prix. This was the type of result – solidly best of the rest behind the top three team – that the Aussie and the team have been aiming for all season.

By DAN KNUTSON

To round out Renault’s perfect day, Nico Hülkenberg finished fifth in the sister car. Renault’s result was aided by having both Red Bulls and one Ferrari behind the team in the race for assorted reasons.

Ricciardo qualified fourth, which equaled his best starting spot of the season in Canada. He finished sixth in that race, which was his best result until the Italian Grand Prix.

AUTO ACTION was there to hear what Ricciardo had to say after the race in Monza.

“I’m very, very happy with the weekend,” he said. “A bit like Canada, we executed the qualifying result into a strong race result. I felt that this one was a bit overdue. We finally got maximum points if you know what I mean. That is really pleasing.”

Ricciardo then glanced at a TV screen that was showing the podium celebrations after the race with thousands of fans flooding the main straight to cheer for Charles Leclerc who won in the Ferrari.

“Wow, that is pretty cool, all the loyal fans,” Ricciardo said. “I was one spot away from experiencing that. I want to give an extra special shout out to Viry, to engine boys, because this sort of result here as a Renault team and power unit is quite a statement.

“Every year we come here and it feels like that there is a lack of optimism, at least in the last few years it (engine horsepower with the Renault engine in the Red Bull) was never a strength of ours coming here. For them to turn it around this year to make the gains and to put on this result here is special. So this one is for them. They deserve a glass of champagne tonight.”

It was not only the engine side, however, as Ricciardo praised the chassis side as well. Still, the Renault’s weak point is on high downforce tracks.

“For sure the package we have on these (low downforce) circuits (like Spa and Monza) is great,” he said. “So coming into (the next race on the high downforce track of) Singapore, there is a lot of things we can learn with the high downforce, and take something from that. We definitely seem stronger on these high-speed flowing parts, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t get it right on the low speeds. So we will do some homework and hopefully this is an encouraging result for the boys in Enstone as well, and particularly as I said for Viry.”

So was this the sort of race result Ricciardo signed up for?

“Yes” he replied. “Canada was not too deep into the season, but it has taken a bit of time to get this second big result. This sort of stuff feels good. Obviously, it is not a podium, I don’t have champagne, but there is still a lot of self-fulfilment in this.

“Everyone works hard but I really feel we deserve this.”

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