Ricciardo: Renault’s top-three pace is genuine after “big step”
Daniel Ricciardo says his top-three performance in practice for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix was ‘genuine’ as he suggested Renault had found a ‘big step’ with its car.
The Australian is coming off the back of a fourth placed finish in last weekend’s British Grand Prix, and was left encouraged as he ended up best-of-the-rest behind Mercedes in Friday running at Silverstone.
And while he accepts that Renault is not in a position to expect to match that form throughout qualifying and the race, he says there is some optimism about what the team found with his car on Friday.
“I think that was genuine, at least for the track conditions,” said Ricciardo. “We did a few changes through the session and I really felt a big step, you know, with one of the changes we made.
“I was: ‘alright, this is a pretty good race car right now.’ So yeah, I think we can hang in there. We'll see. I mean, if we are here in quali I think that would still exceed what probably our expectation is now, but I think we can still do a very good job.”
Ricciardo was not getting too carried away though, and he thinks a change of wind direction that is expected for tomorrow could have the potential to shake things up.
“The big thing is tomorrow, the wind is changing 180 degrees by the looks of it, and it's going to pick up,” he explained. “People at home will go, so what? But that is going to change the balance and the cars a lot.
“So I think tomorrow you know there might might be a different story and there'll be a few other things going on, but we certainly put ourselves in a good place today.”
Ricciardo is also mindful about the impact of the tyre strategy headaches that teams are going to face on Friday night, with the soft tyre degrading quite heavily.
“Yeah, the soft is...it's an interesting tyre. Interesting. That's probably the best way to put it,” he said. “I was surprised that it held on for most of the lap. I don't think many people are going to want to do much with that tyre for the rest of the weekend, or at least when it counts.
“I think even Lewis and Valtteri did a bit of a compare and Lewis had had a bit more time on the medium than the soft. So, yeah, I think that's probably where that's gonna go. But that's cool you know: throw another spanner in the works.”
Share Or Save This Story
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"
Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP
Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit
“I went back to the car and cried” – Esteban Ocon opens up about his unexpected year on F1 sidelines
You Ask The Questions: Robert Kubica
On this day: Michael Schumacher’s final unsportsmanlike manoeuvre
Kimi Antonelli "should be in a Ferrari" after Monza win, says Guenther Steiner
Anthony Davidson warns young drivers not to follow Lewis Hamilton's Madrid FP3 example
F1 Spanish GP: Kimi Antonelli tops red-flagged FP3 following Lewis Hamilton, Oliver Bearman crashes
Lewis Hamilton under fire after ignoring Ferrari calls to stop damaged car in Madrid FP3
Audi’s long road back to the top of grand prix racing
What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 F1 Spanish GP
What F1's risky Madrid bet needs to get right in order to pay off
The deeper meaning of Vettel’s emotional Schumacher demo run at Monza
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments