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Daniel Ricciardo acknowledged Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko watching his performances closely. Speaking to onsite media ahead of the 2024 Japanese GP, the Australian confidence in his ability to turn around his performance soon.
It was speculated after the Australian GP, that Daniel Ricciardo had been given a two-race ultimatum by the Austrian veteran. Reports suggested that the 34-year-old could be replaced as early as May if results were not delivered. However, Red Bull dismissed the reports to Sportskeeda, suggesting there was no such deadline.
After two tough race weekends, Marko reserved his judgment over the Perth-born driver’s performance in Australia. He felt RB needed to provide the driver with a car he was comfortable with. From various statements from both RB and Red Bull senior personnel, it is understood that the former Red Bull Racing driver has been given more time to deliver results.
From the last two performances, Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that there has been a level of discomfort with the car which has resulted in a marginal gap to Yuki Tsunoda in terms of lap time. Daniel Ricciardo reckons that his engineers and RB are focused on the task at hand rather than getting distracted by external suggestions.
Acknowledging Marko’s expectations of him, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“I know what he expects and wants and it’s exactly what I want. I know it’s 24 races and it’s a long season and if I have two good races now and all of a sudden it’s forgotten the bad ones. But every race that passes is another one that okay, okay, so yeah, so three, three races and not having a result I want. I’m sure it’s also not what he wants or the team want.”
“But it’s important for us, Pierre and Patrick my two engineers have been working their butts off, and it’s important that we just focus on ourselves and don’t get kind of distracted by anything else. And of course, we all want the result. But it’s not going to come from receiving suggestions or advice or I don’t know anything else from someone. So we’ll just stay on course and I know it will come on. Unfortunately, it hasn’t come yet but I definitely have faith.”
Daniel Ricciardo is adamantly confident about improving performances in the future
Daniel Ricciardo is optimistic about his ability to overcome performance issues in the 2024 season, stating that he is internally confident and has not succumbed to external criticism. Previously, with McLaren, the criticism had resulted in a downward spiral mentally, resulting in him losing his confidence. He believes that it is a matter of ironing out small things in the car to turn around the performance.
Asked by F1 TV where he was mentally coming into the Japanese GP weekend, Daniel Ricciardo replied:
“It’s funny because, on paper, it hasn’t been good [so far this season], and I know obviously that as well, the results haven’t been what I wanted. But personally, and the confidence and the happiness and all of that, is really unchanged, so it’s really just a matter now of getting a result and kind of putting a few things to rest. But internally and the place I’m in personally, I feel really good and that’s why it’s probably been a little bit weird to comprehend why the result hasn’t happened yet, but otherwise, yeah, feeling good.”
“Obviously I can’t predict what’s going to happen this weekend but, standing here now, I certainly feel I can make a good result happen. It’s really just small things here and there, so I think what’s important now is – because we’re not in a place where we’re lost or I don’t feel good – I think it’s important for us just to focus on… I sit down with my engineers and that’s it. We don’t start receiving suggestions from other people, of ‘have you thought about this’ or ‘do that’, because then you go down a rabbit hole that we’re certainly not willing or ready to go down.”
Daniel Ricciardo, who returned to racing after an eight-month hiatus, outqualified Tsunoda in his first race with AlphaTauri in Hungary. He also outqualified the Japanese driver in three out of six qualifying sessions and two out of three sprint shootouts in 2023, despite an underwhelming start to the 2024 season.
Currently, the Australian remains in the hunt for his first points finish of the season and is in a pressured situation to turn around his early season performance woes. His contract situation and the bid for the Red Bull seat in 2025 make it a race against time for Daniel Ricciardo to deliver the desired results to avoid getting written off by his current team or potential employers.
