Ricciardo upbeat in Suzuka
Despite so much noise surrounding Daniel Ricciardo and his future, the Aussie feels “I can make a good result happen” at the Japanese Grand Prix.
After a tough home race and a point-less start to 2024, the pressure is ramping up on Ricciardo to perform to not only keep his Red Bull dream alive, but simply retain his seat at Racing Bulls for the remainder of 2024.
The 34-year-old Australian has only beaten younger teammate Yuki Tsunoda once in three races at the Bahrain opener and is yet to out qualify the #22 with the Japanese driver making Q3 twice, plus scoring points with a solid eighth place at Albert Park.
Since his home race a lot of noise has surrounded Ricciardo with rumours suggesting a Helmut Marko ultimatum might mean Liam Lawson replaces the eight-time Grand Prix winner for good if he does not pick his pace prior to Miami.
Despite all of this going on, Ricciardo is in good spirits at Suzuka.
“It is funny. On paper it has not been good or what I wanted, but personally the confidence and happiness is really unchanged,” Ricciardo said.
“It is just a matter of getting a result and putting a few things to rest.
“Internally I feel really good which is why it has probably been a little bit weird to comprehend why the results haven’t happened yet.
“I can’t predict what is going to happen this weekend but standing here now I feel like I can make a good result happen.”
Ricciardo said he has spent the fortnight between Melbourne and Suzuka trying to get a better grip on the VCARB 01 and vitally blocking out outside noise.
“We have been putting in a lot of work off track, trying to understand how much is me or the car or what is it the car is not giving me. Just small things here or there,” Ricciardo said.
“What is important now is that we are not in a place where we are lost and it is important just to focus on just sitting down with engineers and not receiving suggestions from other people because then you go down a rabbit hole we are not willing to go down.
“It is frustrating because we do want the results and I feel ready to get them but can’t get sidetracked by anything else really.”
Suzuka would be the perfect place for Ricciardo to rediscover his mojo.
Not only is Japan Tsunoda’s home race, but it is also power unit supplier Honda and Marko’s patience is running out rapidly.
His last Japanese Grand Prix was 2022 where he finished 11th for McLaren having missed last year due to surgery.
Ricciardo’s Suzuka highlight was standing on the podium with a third place in 2017.
He will have limited time to come to grips with the twists of Suzuka however, with Japanese driver Ayumu Iwasa taking over the Australian’s seat for FP1.
The 2024 Japanese Grand Prix begins on Friday in a favourable time zone for Australian fans of 13.30 AEDT with Practice 1.
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
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