The Ricciardo smile was back after Montreal qualifying…
Daniel Ricciardo says the 10th anniversary of his “effortless” first Grand Prix victory helped to provided extra motivation ahead of his charge to P5 in qualifying in Canada.
The performance came after a disappointing run of races of the Australian, whose maiden victory for Red Bull came in Montreal on June 8th 2014.
Although he qualified fourth and finished in the same position in the Miami sprint last month Ricciardo has usually struggled to match team mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Inevitably he has faced some criticism in recent weeks, with former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve making negative comments to the UK’s Sky F1.
“I’ve obviously been highly motivated to do more than I have been this year,” he said when asked by this writer about his Montreal qualifying performance.
“Obviously Miami was a bit of a one-off, but I know how good those results feel, and that’s why I do it, to fill those highs. So I think just coming into the week, I don’t know, everything felt right.
“I was really happy just to come back to this circuit and drive here, because I love it. And today’s 10 years to the day of my first win, and that day changed my life. So there’s a lot of nice emotions coming into it. And I just felt like I was ready to do some good shit!”
Regarding Villeneuve’s criticism he said: “I still don’t know what he said, but I heard he’s been talking shit, but he always does.
“I think he’s hit his head a few too many times. So I don’t know if he plays ice hockey or something! Anyway, I won’t give him the time of day.”
Ricciardo said his Montreal qualifying form was down to a combination of the car and his personal approach to the weekend.
“There’s I would say, two parts. Firstly, the car from when we put it down yesterday on track, I just had confidence in it. The car felt good, I was able to kind of slide it, and drive a little bit more aggressively. I just felt like I was getting on top of it. So yeah, I felt like the car was good.
“But also part two is we’re always going to be trying to perfect the car, but I also have to look at myself, and make sure that I’m in a good place to be able to do results like this.
“It’s obviously been a bit harder for me to find that sweet spot this year. And I look back at 10 years ago, I think it was kind of effortless.
“After Monaco, I tried to just understand. I was always looking at the on-track stuff, I can brake later here, or do this and that, but it was like, ‘Okay, what’s maybe some other things that are affecting my performances. Am I coming into a race weekend not feeling energised, or not feeling this or that?’
“So yeah, I think I just had a little bit of good, probably like self-therapy after Monaco, and just sat back and had a look at maybe the things I’m doing wrong away from the track, or maybe giving too much of my time to people, and by the time I get to race day or something, I’m a little bit more flat.
“Because I know it’s in me. So as I said, we’re always going to be trying to fine tune the car, but deep down, I know what I can do, and it’s just making sure that I’m in this spot to be able to do it more often, so trying to take as much accountability as possible. And yeah, just think a little bit broader.”
Ricciardo says he asked people for advice on what he could do differently.
“Basically just everyone around me, the team, engineers, my inner circle as well, just like, ‘Guys, open book, constructive criticism, give it to me. What do you think I can clean up? Where do you feel I’m maybe missing something?’
“A lot of it was kind of just probably energy management over the course of the weekend. So it’s not even what I’m doing in the car. It’s just what gets me into the car feeling like I’m fucking ready to go!
“So it was just trying to clean up some of those things. And if there was anything on my mind, try to just get it off my chest.
“And I just got into this weekend feeling certainly a bit lighter. And yeah, just hungry and happy and ready to say fuck you to people!”
Adam Cooper F1 