Both RB drivers spent the day comfortably inside the top 10 in both practice sessions.
Such was their pace that the pair look to have the third quickest car around Marina Bay, behind McLaren and Ferrari.
But exactly why the Italian squad has shot up the order has Ricciardo flummoxed.
“Formula 1. That’s why,” he joked when asked if he understood why the VCARB01 was so rapid.
“Look, the last time we had high downforce I think was, okay, maybe Zandvoort – I was thinking Budapest.
“Maybe this package was Budapest-ish, we were competitive there, maybe it’s a little bit more suited to our car at the moment; running the bigger wings and this style circuit.
“We actually thought we’d be good in Baku; we weren’t,” he added.
“Much lower downforce… Maybe this high downforce setup is a little kinder to us.
“Hopefully it remains tomorrow and hopefully we can be smiling and just saying ‘you beauty’.”
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RB struggled in Baku, a circuit that on paper shares similarities with Marina Bay.
Both are street circuits with predominantly low-speed corners 90 degrees.
The difference however is that the Azerbaijan venue has an extreme front straight such that teams trim out their wings.
There, Tsunoda was the best placed RB in qualifying in 12th, though was an early retirement following contact on the opening lap.
Ricciardo did see the finish, though a distant 13th and, most worryingly, 50 seconds being constructors’ championship rivals Haas.
Without such high-speed sections in Singapore, teams run a more traditional high-downforce set-up around Marina Bay.
That appears to suit the RB much better, with strong opening day pace across both cars – there was just 0.01s between Tsunoda in fourth and Ricciardo in sixth.
Indeed third (Carlos Sainz) to seventh (George Russell) was covered by 0.02s.
“It was a really good day for both of us,” said Ricciardo of his Friday.
“I think we’re pretty happy with the car, with some fine tuning, but it was nice to see ourselves up the point end.
“Looks like so far at least we’ve got a decent package here, so that’s nice.
“It’s got a lot more grip here than I remember,” he added.
“I know they resurfaced some of it this year, I think they resurfaced it maybe last year.
“So since 2022, it’s much quicker and it’s actually really, really fun.
“I don’t know if I brushed any walls; I was hoping I would have, just to leave a few marks, but we’ve still got tomorrow!
“It looks cool when you brush the walls, all the cool kids are doing it!”
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