Ricciardo ‘not panicking’ about slow start

It has been an under par start to an important 2024 for Daniel Ricciardo, but he is far from panic stations as he “keeps digging” for answers after his home race.

A poor qualifying effort put Ricciardo on the back foot for the 2024 Australian Grand Prix.

The “Honey badger” started from 18th, his worst grid position for his home race ever with the previous lowest 15th in 2017.

Although Ricciardo climbed six positions to finish 12th, he was still five positions and a lap behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who scored Racing Bulls’ first points of 2024.

Overall the Australian Grand Prix was a disappointing one for Ricciardo, who was well behind Tsunoda all weekend.

It comes after also failing to score points in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while the eight-time Grand Prix winner has been unable to out qualify his much younger teammate.

Over the course of the Australian Grand Prix, it has become clear that time is rapidly ticking for Ricciardo, who could even be replaced by Kiwi Liam Lawson post Miami if he continues to struggle.

Ricciardo admitted it has been a challenging start to 2024, but he is not panicking and believes he can find the “something” required soon.

“It has not been the best first three races for sure,” he said.

“The preparation coming into the season is not where I expected to be, but we are not going to get rattled by it and will stay on course. 

“I am sure we will find it. I definitely believe I can do it (and) it is probably a two part process.

“There is me looking at the data and diving in to see if its driving technique and what am I doing this and correlate that.  I am throwing a lot of questions at the engineers and asking myself a lot too.

“The car has not really changed too much from last year and the characteristics are very similar.

“I would not say there is any panic and we will keep digging.

“We will find something, I thought it might be this weekend but maybe it will be the next one. 

“If it isn’t we will keep going until it does but it will happen.”

In terms of the Australian Grand Prix race itself, Ricciardo made the aggressive move to start on the Softs for five laps before a double dose of Hard tyres to end the race and come home 12th, 5s behind Alex Albon.

Despite the Aussie wanting more, he revealed there were flashes of positive signs during the 58-lap home race, a boost after a “frustrating” qualifying performance.

“I felt like the frustration I put aside for the race and tried to make the most of it,” he said.

“It was nice that I did have moments in the race and show that I can still have moments where I got some good stints in there.

“There were things through the race that I will mark as a reference to tell the engineers, so it’s good to get the understanding and data gathering.

“I would have loved to go better but we need to keep our eyes on the prize.”

Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool

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