Daniel Ricciardo’s frustrations continue after being beaten by teammate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The 34-year-old hasn’t lost the sport’s biggest smile despite his baffling struggles on his RB at the season-opening grand prix in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and at home in Australia.
He has been consistently outclassed by Japanese team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and is yet to finish higher than 12th in all three races, drawing comparisons to his disappointing previous spell at McLaren.
The Australian was contemplating a possible appearance in Q3, which would have been his first since last year’s Mexican Grand Prix, but Tsunoda had other ideas and broke into the top 10 at the end of Q2, causing Ricciardo to be eliminated with his deficit compared to Tsunoda. only 0.055 s.
Ricciardo’s engineer, Pierre Hamelin, took to the team radio to communicate the news to the Australian in a strange way.
Daniel Ricciardo’s frustrations have continued as he once again failed to make it to Q3
The Australian later received backhanded praise from his engineer over the radio.
‘Okay Daniel, I know you always need to do a little better, but you should be happy. “We’re in a good place,” Hamelin said.
Ricciardo responded sternly: “Yes, obviously not, but I appreciate that we did well.”
Hamelin concluded by saying, “Yes, let’s focus on the positive.”
Commentator and former driver Alice Powell thought it was “an odd compliment”, while F1 journalist Andrew Benson said he could understand that the way the message was conveyed could frustrate Ricciardo.
“I think the engineer means well,” Benson suggested, “that’s not what the driver wants to hear: ‘Your teammate beat you, but you should be happy, because you were really rubbish before.'”
Powell confirmed that she would have taken the message the same way.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” he said in response to Benson, “that’s how I would have heard it too, that’s how I heard it.”
However, at Suzuka, ahead of this weekend’s fourth test, Ricciardo was keen to point out that this is not another “McLaren situation” and that he is close to making a breakthrough again.
Ricciardo confident he will turn his F1 season around on Sunday in Japan
“It’s funny because, on paper, it hasn’t been good… and obviously I also know that the results haven’t been what I wanted,” he told reporters Thursday.
“But personally, the confidence and happiness and all that hasn’t really changed, so now it’s just a matter of getting a result and leaving some things alone.”
“Personally, I feel very good about where I am and that’s probably why it’s been a bit strange to understand why the result hasn’t happened yet.”
‘It’s been three races, but I know I don’t need to change anything, it will come. It’s just a little bit here and there.
‘Whatever is maybe missing at the moment will fit, and I think that’s a weekend away.
“Even in Melbourne (at the Australian GP), where I was disappointed on paper with the weekend of course (after finishing 12th) and not scoring points, when we analyze the race, it wasn’t as sad as it probably looked. .
“We had good race pace, there are some good things we are addressing and we just need to fix them now.” And I will do that.
“I said I would do it in Melbourne and I fell short. But I’ll do it this weekend.”