Daniel Ricciardo reflects positively on his performance in Austria, despite questioning whether the pace of his Visa RB car was sufficient to score points without the incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. However, Ricciardo noticed that in some areas, Visa RB was ‘overperforming’.
Daniel Ricciardo managed to put in a decent performance in Austria. The Australian qualified in eleventh place on Saturday, three places higher than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in P14. During the race, Ricciardo even managed to climb to P9, securing valuable points for his team, Visa RB.
The Perth native looks back contentedly on his “hard-fought” performance at the Red Bull Ring. “I half apologized to Pierre [Hamelin, Ricciardo’s race engineer] after the race,” Ricciardo admits. “I was like, ‘Sorry, I couldn’t say much today.’ [The race] took a lot of concentration and effort.” According to the Australian, he was just “keeping his head above water” on Sunday.
Ricciardo’s Performance in Recent Races
Ricciardo’s position in the top ten comes after he previously performed well in races in Canada and Spain. In Montreal, the Visa RB driver managed to break into the top ten again, to P8, while Ricciardo described the race in Spain as one of his better results. “The last three [races in Canada, Spain, and Austria] were definitely better, which made us feel like we got the most out of it [in Austria],” he said. “There will always be areas that I can do better and improve, but overall we leave the paddock with a smile.”
‘Perhaps We Didn’t Deserve the Points’
Although Ricciardo is pleased that he was able to score points at the Red Bull Ring, the Australian thinks the pace of the VCARB01 could have been better. “Deep down we will look back at our pace and say that we [in Austria] perhaps did not belong in the points,” the Australian admits. Ricciardo was helped in his hunt for P9 by the retirement of former teammate Norris. “But I feel that at some points we may have overperformed and we will perhaps give ourselves a pat on the back.” Ricciardo does not specify which points he means by this.
