Ricciardo has had a sluggish start to the 2024 F1 season, trailing team-mate Yuki Tsunoda without explanation for his lack of pace.
That has ramped up the pressure on the 34-year-old at an early stage of the campaign, prompting speculation (dressed up as fact by some outlets) that he could be ousted from his drive in favour of Liam Lawson by the Miami Grand Prix.
It’s a concept that has been categorically denied by multiple sources spoken to by Speedcafe but does highlight the need for improved performances.
Following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ricciardo revealed the team had found discrepancies from his car to that of Tsunoda, which were corrected for the Australian Grand Prix.
But there, he was still wanting compared to his Japanese colleague, especially on single lap pace.
Discussions surrounding potential root causes for Ricciardo’s woes have seen the West Aussie suggest swapping chassis if things don’t improve.
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“There has. I certainly addressed that,” the eight-time grand prix winner admitted when asked if a chassis swap had been considered.
“Just again to make sure that there’s just… there has been, in the past, a bit of a difference [between chassis].
“I’ve driven F1 a long time now, but you can find some differences [between chassis], so that was certainly something I raised the possibility if we still are struggling before we just tell me I’m shit, please get that sorted.”
The Australian also shed further light on the differences between his experience in the car and that of Tsunoda.
“I struggling a little bit in the highspeed in Melbourne and Saudi,” he confessed.
“Saudi, we did see we were down a bit, so we kind of felt like we had a bit of an explanation for that, but then it was still the case in Melbourne through [Turns] 9 and 10, where I was down a bit compared to Yuki.
“So it’s really just trying to find – I think we probably focus a little bit of our set-up on those areas to give me that confidence, and then I think the low and medium speed stuff, we’re pretty much there.”
Knowing where he’s losing out to his team-mate is an important step, which Ricciardo plans to approach differently to his time at McLaren.
There, he adjusted his own driving style rather than tuning the car, which created something of a chicken-and-egg scenario in terms of his inability to extract the car’s full potential, which was unsuited to his natural style.
With his natural style compromised by the car, he couldn’t show his full potential and therefore extract it from the car either.
Now, Ricciardo is sticking to his guns, confident that, at some point, things will fall into place.
“It’s not a McLaren situation,” he explained.
“It’s just important now that I just keep working with my engineers, and we don’t start taking too many suggestions or advice from the outside.
“I would have wanted more results from the first few races. I’m not happy with it, of course, but it’s important that we stay on course, ultimately, and don’t get sidetracked.”
Ricciardo will sit out opening practice today as Ayumu Iwasa substitutes (Liam Lawson is no longer eligible following his 2023 cameo) for the 60-minute outing – the first of two mandatory rookie practice appearances for the team, as laid out in the regulations.
Ricciardo will return to the car for Free Practice 2, which begins at 17:00 AEDT.
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