Daniel Ricciardo as RB excitement fades: “I didn’t drive s***, but…”

Daniel Ricciardo qualified for today’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix in 14th, ending the early optimism surrounding his RB team.

RB have come under the microscope of rival teams for their close association to Red Bull but, while Max Verstappen took pole position, Yuki Tsunoda only claimed P11 and Ricciardo is three places further back.

“I was disappointed in my position slash performance,” Ricciardo said afterwards.

“I didn’t drive shit or anything. But I never really crossed the line being like ‘Yeah, I did a clear lap!’

“I always knew I could make time at Turn 1, or Turn 4. There were always some parts on the track where I knew there was lap time.

“But I never really was able to put it together.

“Even if I improved a little bit then I’d probably lose a bit in the next corner, so it see-sawed a bit. I was never progressively gaining.

“So I felt like, from that point of view, I wasn’t that happy with my session.

“In terms of team performance, this is where we thought.

“I feel like there’s a bit more time on the table.

“But, taking Yuki in 11th, we felt like, if we do like a great lap, Q3 is possible but, otherwise, we’re probably around that top 12 area.

“Every session we make some subtle changes. So we’re still trying to chase the car a little bit, but nothing crazy.

“I would say in quali when, probably in the conditions where everything is normally the best, I’ve probably struggled a bit more than I have in other sessions.

“When you push the car to the limit, you kind of expose a few other things and maybe I wasn’t as proactive with that in reading the conditions in the car.

“I just struggled to put the lap together. I felt like, if I pushed really hard in one corner, then I would probably mess up the next corner.

“So I felt like it was a little bit tricky to just consistently improve in every corner. I felt like ‘you gain a bit here, lose a bit there’.

“So it was a bit of a struggle.

“Turn 1, I missed the apex quite a few times, just not getting the front in.

“But every lap was ‘Oh yeah, I know where that is’.

“You know to brake and turn a little bit earlier, but I would still be looking past the apex when I got there and being like ‘f**k!’

“I just missed it a little bit, maybe some setup or feeling with tyres. 
“But I would expect myself to be able to find that in a few runs in quali.”