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Christian Horner has offered insight into the bad habits Red Bull picked up as Daniel Ricciardo returned to the Milton Keynes squad.
Ricciardo signed on as third driver with the operation for whom he won seven of his eight grands prix following two tough years at McLaren.
That involved time on the Red Bull simulator in support of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez as well as participation in a Pirelli tyre test following the British Grand Prix.
It was there the Australian proved ready for a racing return, with Horner and Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko giving him the nod to join Scuderia AlphaTauri from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The process of getting to the tyre test, however, was a journey with Horner revealing Ricciardo was “unrecognisable” from the driver who’d left the team for Renault at the end of 2018.
“I think he picked up a lot of bad habits,” Horner told Speedcafe of Ricciardo upon his return.
“It took some of his old engineering team to unpick some of those and very quickly, in a virtual world, got back to where we expected – and on par – with what we were used to.
“Then, we just wanted to verify that in the real world and the tyre test provided that opportunity.”
Ricciardo’s struggles with McLaren were well documented, with his natural style not gelling with the intricacies of what the Woking machines needed to extract their best.
It saw the Australian put increasing effort into modifying his inputs behind the wheel, something which was not second nature, as he continued to struggle.
The result was a Ricciardo that Horner and Red Bull didn’t recognise when he completed his first simulator session for the team at the start of the year.
“I think the problem is that when you’re driving cars that are difficult, it’s sometimes a compromise to get the most out of them,” Horner reasoned.
“I mean, his whole braking technique had changed dramatically from the technique that we were accustomed to.
“He was trying to put a sticking plaster on a weakness of the car to get it to rotate.
“I think once we don’t pick that then you saw everything starts to become more natural.”
During the time away from the sport’s spotlight, Ricciardo remained active.
After taking a short period out, he quickly resumed training with Horner suggesting he’s now in better shape physically than he was a year ago.
“He’s in great shape,” the Red Bull boss said.
“He’s always taking care of himself.
“If anything, when he came back, he looked like he hadn’t eaten for three months. But he’s in good shape.
“He did well over 100 laps, I think at Silverstone, which is a demanding physical circuit and then to jump in at Hungary, one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar and put in a stint like he did on the medium tyre, was hugely impressive.”
Ricciardo finished a promising 11th in the Hungarian Grand Prix and gained valuable intel over the course of a more difficult Belgian Grand Prix a week later, (“he was unlucky,” noted Horner about his qualifying effort, “should have been in the top 10”).
Formula 1 returns from its hiatus with the Dutch Grand Prix on August 25-27.
