Ricciardo still not sure why gap to Norris is so alarming
Jul.4 - Daniel Ricciardo is determined not to let his consistent and stark defeats to McLaren teammate Lando Norris "get me down".
The Australian headed into the Paul Ricard-Austria-Austria triple-header with high hopes that the consecutive action would end his struggle to get on terms with his decade-younger teammate.
But while Norris sensationally missed pole by a mere half-tenth on Saturday, Ricciardo was a long way off the pace - and a fitting 13th on the grid.
"I've certainly been better," he admitted afterwards. "But I'm ok.
"I'm definitely not going to let the sport get me down, because it can't become something repetitive."
Indeed, Ricciardo is also refusing to deal with his pace problem by directly asking 21-year-old Norris for advice.
"Drivers don't do that. Each to their own," he insisted.
"In debriefs, information is shared about how we feel about the car, but everyone has their own way and their own little things they'll keep for themselves. That is just how this sport is and that's ok."
Ricciardo admits he isn't sure why the gap to Norris is so alarming.
"I feel like I am pushing the car and driving on the edge and it is just not translating into lap time at the moment," he said.
"I can't take a second off the car. So I don't know.
"I congratulated him (Norris), but I don't know how take time like that. That's the truth."
Worse still for Ricciardo, he revealed that after the triple-header, he actually now feels "more comfortable" in the 2021 McLaren.
The pace, though, is still not there.
"If I had not seen the times, I would have said today was a good day. But obviously something is missing so we need to dig a little deeper to find the answer," said Ricciardo.
"Oddly enough, in a sense I'm satisfied with the car, so we need to keep looking for areas that will allow us to win back the time - because we're not talking about fractions of a second. It's a big gap.
"It will take more time to analyse the situation. That's just the situation at the moment."
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Probably because Norris is the most underrated driver in F1.
but not forgetting hes in his 4th yr with the team, whilst DR is with his 4th team in as many years, that in itself does not help with stability of mind .however i do agree he is a big future star .
And in 2014 it was his first year with RB, didn't stop him beating the then WDC Vettel though.
Yeah I wonder if DR and McLaren are financially aligned. Best McLaren can hope for is third in the constructors championship. With Norris scoring points they only need DR to be in the top 6. There is no financial incentive for McLaren to pay Ricciardo a podium bonus of $400k.
It was a mistake for DR to agree an incentive deal.
Jack is that correct a 400k bonus for podiums where did u see that ? the bigger question 4me is if norris can get on it why cant DR
400k bonuses was published a few times in different media.
The point I am making is that in a year of "limbo" for F1 regs, and financial adjustment, why would McLaren want to pay for podiums it doesn't need to maximise its financial return from F1.
DR has reported sudden loses of speed, overnight drop in performance.
I'm just sayin!!
My apologies 3rd team in 4 yrs, but the point still stands up i believe