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Ricciardo finished 15th in the Spanish Grand Prix, three places up from his lowly 18th grid spot, while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was 19th.
It was a lacklustre weekend for the Faenza operation as it introduced a notable upgrade package.
“From the beginning, from a competitiveness [perspective], we weren’t there,” Ricciardo acknowledged.
“It was a really, really strange weekend for us, to have dropped off so much.”
RB had finished in the points in the four races leading into Spain, and six of the last seven to sit sixth in the constructors’ championship.
With the upgrades on hand for the Spanish weekend, there were hopes of being able to challenge Aston Martin for fifth.
Instead, the squad locked out the penultimate row of the grid as both Ricciardo and Tsunoda struggled to understand the revised car.
Progress in the race itself was, therefore, a positive of sorts, though some way shy of where the team wants – and expects – to be.
“My race today, honestly, I felt good,” Ricciardo declared.
“I was happy with the race, happy with what I got out of it, but yeah, 15th is not something that we can be happy about.
“With the package we had this weekend, I honestly don’t think we could have done anything better.
“I don’t want to say that makes everything better, it doesn’t, but we need to move on.
“I’ve got plenty of notes and feedback from the race today to give to the team tonight.
“In the next 48/72 hours, [there’s] lots of things to look at.”
Concerningly, both Ricciardo and Tsunoda were happy with the balance and feel of the car.
However, that did not translate into lap time despite the Australian believing he largely maximised his opportunities.
“Yesterday, I had not a bad feeling in qualifying,” he noted.
“In the debrief, Yuki and myself, we did good laps.
“There was a little bit in Turn 12 but, honestly, we felt like the balance and that wasn’t bad we just, I think, simply lacked the load.
“We probably [didn’t] really get everything out of the new package.
“Today, in the race, I definitely felt a few more limitations, so these are the notes I’ll give back to the team now, and see what we can come up with.”
