RICCIARDO READY FOR MELBOURNE

Daniel Ricciardo ready for Melbourne Grand Prix – Photo: LAT

Daniel Ricciardo believes he and his Renault team are ready to race in the Australian Grand Prix.

By DAN KNUTSON

“Yes, we are definitely ready,” the Aussie said when AUTO ACTION asked him about Melbourne.

“As far as the reliability it was pretty strong for us at this test. In January the reliability of the dyno and everything back at (Renault’s engine base in) Viry was positive. They racked up more kilometers than they ever had before in their endurance tests. I think we are pretty good.”

Ricciardo set the fastest lap time during the morning session of the final day of pre-season F1 testing in Barcelona, but Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) slipped ahead of him late in the afternoon session.

Ricciardo clocked a time of 1:16.276 in his Renault using Pirelli’s softest compound tyres codenamed C5. After the morning session, when he talked to the media including AUTO ACTION, he was asked what it felt like to be on temporary pole position.

“There are two parts to that in terms of the way I feel,” he replied.

“There’s the part where you are reserved because it is just testing, and we had C5 tyres on. I know we were not the only one on C5s. Lewis (Hamilton) ran it, and we know we are not as quick as Mercedes, and we do not know what they were doing. I would like to think we are as quick, but I don’t want to get that ahead of ourselves.

“So I don’t necessarily get excited about the P1, but in saying that, if I put the C5 on and we were P6, then for sure I would be disappointed. So it is nice to put in a good lap. We were able to use a new tyre relatively well, so there are positives for sure. But we’ve been doing this long enough to know that that is not necessarily where we will qualify in Melbourne. But it is still positive for us to see that we’ve extracted a quick time.”

Esteban Ocon drove the Renault in the afternoon session and wound up sixth out of the 14 drivers.

Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time in the afternoon session – Photo: LAT

Bottas set the fastest time in the afternoon with a 1:16.196 in his Mercedes.

“That’s it for pre-season testing for another year,” Bottas said.

“I think we can be happy that we’ve made the most of it, only missing out on a few miles to some small issues. I’ve already got a nice feeling with the car and it’s been good to get the chance to get comfortable with the long and short runs, and practice some starts too.

“I feel like we’ve made a step forward in most areas and it’s been a successful test. As always we’ll be focusing on our own performance and we’ve got two important weeks coming up now ahead of the first race to put what we’ve learnt from the test into action.”

Verstappen posted a 1:16.269 in the final hour to push Ricciardo down to third.

But Red Bull and Verstappen were sandbagging! With about eight minutes remaining, Verstappen was out on the track and faster than Bottas in the first two sectors of the lap. But then Verstappen lifted off in the final sector, and so he did not beat Bottas’ time.

Furthermore, Bottas set his best lap time using Pirelli’s softest tyre compound (C5), and Verstappen was on the next softest compound (C4).

“I feel ready,” Verstappen said at the conclusion of testing.

“I think it’s been a good preparation. We tried everything we wanted to try. The car feeling good. I just hope in Melbourne it will be the same, but we will find out over there. Overall I can’t complain. There are always things of course to improve, but that is always the case. a car is never perfect.”

Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing – Final Day Standings

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 1m16.196s – C5 compound – 79 laps
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 1m16.269s – (C4) compound – 45 laps
Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) – 1m16.276s – C5 compound – 65 laps
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1m16.360s – C5 compound – 181 laps
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1m16.410s – C5 compound – 90 laps
Esteban Ocon (Renault) – 1m16.433s – C5 compound – 75 laps
Sergio Perez (Racing Point) – 1m16.634s – C5 compound – 154 laps
Carlos Sainz (McLaren) – 1m16.820s – (C4) compound – 163 laps
George Russell (Williams) – 1m16.871s – C5 compound – 146 laps
Daniil Kvyat (AlphaTauri) – 1m16.914s – (C4) compound – 160 laps
Romain Grosjean (Haas) – 1m17.037s – (C4) compound – 86 laps
Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) – 1m17.415s – C5 compound – 115 laps
Kevin Magnussen (Haas) – 1m17.495s – (C4) compound – 29 laps
Alexander Albon (Red Bull) – 1m17.803s – (C3) compound – 59 lap

Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing – Cumulative Results

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