Ricciardo not “too discouraged” despite Free Practice results

Daniel Ricciardo’s Thursday running in Saudi Arabia revealed a mixed bag of results for the RB team, with the Australian saying he isn’t “too discouraged” with holding the 19th fastest time ahead of “a fun [qualifying] session” tomorrow morning.

FP1 for the Honey Badger was quite straightforward, with Ricciardo reacquainting himself with the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after missing last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as he was yet to have a permanent seat on the grid. 

Ricciardo maximised his time on track, continuing to lap the high-speed circuit while the rest of the grid retreated at the 20-minute mark of the first session.

It was then that he improved from his time in P15, all the way up to seventh-fastest. 

As the running continued, the #3 naturally drifted down the order.

On one of his final flying laps of the session, Ricciardo trailed the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, setting a time of 1:30.917s to slot into P12. 

He finished ahead of his RB teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, in this session, with the Japanese driver just over a tenth slower in P16. 

However, as nightfall fell in Jeddah, FP2 was the all-important practice session, with drivers able to push their cars to the limits in conditions representative of what they will be experiencing in qualifying and the race.

Daniel Ricciardo during FP2 at the Saudi Arabian GP. Image: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images.

Ricciardo ended the session in a presumably disappointing P19, however, he says it’s not all as it seems.

“[FP2] was a session of two halves,” Ricciardo said.

“We had two sets of softs, and the first set was actually, I’d say, really good, like we were much more competitive.

“I think we were looking better at that point in time, maybe seventh or something… anyway, we were in the fight.

“And then the second set, I struggled a lot.”

“Obviously then you’ve got the track getting better and everything, and everyone improving, and I really struggled to improve.

“There was a bit of traffic and a few things, but honestly that second set was a bit more of a mystery.

Ricciardo was one of only a few drivers who opened the final Thursday session on the soft compound tyre, but despite this, he was ultimately 1.2 seconds off the pace. 

“We kind of started doing a little bit of homework, so we’ll get back to it tonight,” the RB driver said.

“I think there’s obviously something to learn from that, but looking at the first set, I don’t think we should be too discouraged.

“I think we know we’re better than nineteenth so just trying to understand where we can put it all together tomorrow.”

“Sometimes a tyre doesn’t feel like it gives you what it should, and it felt like it never just gave me that… what we call that ‘bite’.

“I don’t want to just leave it to ‘oh, tomorrow we’ll just put a new set on and it’ll be better’, obviously we’ll try to learn and understand if there was something we could have done different.”

Daniel Ricciardo running the soft compound tyre during FP2 at the Saudi Arabian GP. Image: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images.

“Otherwise, once we do all the homework, depending on the answer we get… I mean, in any case, we’re going to go out there tomorrow and put some new sets on, and hopefully, they treat me a little better.

“Putting a lap together, we’re more or less in that fight that we expect to be in.”

His fastest time of FP2 was a 1:30.088s, earned across the 29 laps he completed in the session.

Tsunoda finished the second practice session in P11, splitting the McLaren duo as he was less than a tenth off securing a top-ten time.

In the Honey Badger’s own words, tonight’s qualifying session will be “mucho close-o”.

“Even looking, you know, I saw [Pierre] Gasly was in the top ten, there was [Fernando] Alonso first, so there’s a lot going on.

“Okay, it’s only practice, but it’s really hard to predict.

“It’s such a different circuit to Bahrain, and the surface and, again, the way the tyres behave.

“Qualifying could have quite a swing, and I’ll make sure I’m on the upswing, not the downswing.

“It’ll be fun. It’s a good track — it’s a great track actually so, yeah, I think it’ll be a fun session tomorrow.”

Ricciardo will hit the track for the final hour of practice at 12:30 AM tonight, AEST, followed by Qualifying at 4:00 AM. 

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