Ricciardo sat out the opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix after RB installed Ayumu Iwasa for the opening hour—one of the team’s two mandatory rookie practice appearances.

But with rain impacting Free Practice 2, Ricciardo gained little from the day and now faces the prospect of a busy final hour of practice on Saturday.

“When you miss FP1 you obviously want to get some running in FP2,” he bemoaned.

“That weather was just that in the middle, where it’s not really wet enough for proper inter-running, and then it’s not really dry enough to learn much on the dry running.”

But while he gained next to nothing in the car, he did glean something from his time on the pit wall – an experience he likened to his experience at the start of last season.

“It was like a lot like early last year when I was spending the race weekends on Red Bull’s pit wall,” he explained.

“You actually see quite a bit. We’re looking through a lot of data and you watch on boards and we hear the comments from the drivers, and I’m trying to then understand what exactly they need where, and then I can kind of see it in the data and relate to that.

“Also, I just put myself in that position, and, okay, now what will we do? We have one new set of tyres, and we’re complaining about this—or not complaining, but saying we need this—so what do we do? How much do we change?

“There is some things to learn and evaluate. It’s productive; you have to make it productive.

“Not driving is obviously not that cool, but I can still learn something on pit wall.”

From watching Iwasa in his car in the opening hour, and Yuki Tsunoda across the other side of the garage, Ricciardo believes RB is in with a shot at points come Sunday.

“The afternoon session, forget that ever happened,” he reasoned.

“I think the morning, Yuki looked like he was up to speed well and was in the top 10 I think really all session.

“The McLarens I think we’re on a scrub soft by that point, so I think they’ll be ahead. [Fernando] Alonso was quick. [Lance] Stroll didn’t look so but I’m sure he will be once everything’s up there tomorrow.

“We’re probably at the front of the midfield battle that we’re in, which kind of is that P11 spot.

“You never know what happens in quali, but it looks like we’re where we expect to be, so on that note, it’s more positive than that not.”

Final practice in Japan gets underway at 13:30 AEDT ahead of qualifying at 17:00 AEDT.