"Same page" Ricciardo/Hulkenberg feedback boosting Renault

The Australian, who has switched to the French car manufacturer after a five-year spell at Red Bull, has just completed his first week of action with the team at Barcelona in Spain.

And having got down to work quickly Hulkenberg, he sees a huge positive in the fact that he and the German are demanding exactly the same things from the new RS19.

Speaking about how things were developing with Hulkenberg, Ricciardo said: “It has actually been good.

“We haven’t had much interaction because we have been splitting the days, so I did most of my work in the afternoon and he will do most of his in the evening, or vice versa. But it has been okay.

“But we are both asking for pretty much the same things from the car for improvements, so that is good.

"If one is pulling one way and the other is pulling in another, then the engineers are left with a ‘what do we do?’”

Renault technical director Nick Chester said his first impressions of Ricciardo were encouraging, and said the fact both the team’s drivers were wanting the same things made sorting the car easier.

“He’s been really good,” said Chester about Ricciardo. “He has got good feedback.

“He is clear about what he wants from the car. He has fitted straight in, and his feedback is quite similar to Nico. So it makes it easy to set the car up.”

Although he had only worked trackside with the team for a few days, Ricciardo said he already felt at home.

“I feel comfortable with everyone and I guess it does feel normal walking into the meeting rooms and the debriefs,” he said. “It feels familiar.

“I think the way everyone is engaging with me has been positive and they are certainly trying to draw as much as they can out of me and to also see if Nico and myself are on the same page.

“I know the main things we talked about were identical and where to improve the car, so that is also positive that we are also asking for the same things. It feels cosy.”

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