Ricciardo targets improvements ‘everywhere’ in Monaco

Daniel Ricciardo says Renault has a few areas to address ahead of Monaco Grand Prix qualifying following a low-key day of practice running.

Both Renault drivers looked relatively competitive in opening practice but dropped to 16th and 17th in the timesheets by the end of FP2, some 1.7s off the pace of Thursday leader Lewis Hamilton.

Ricciardo said set-up changes in the afternoon put both drivers on the back foot and remains confident that Renault can extract more performance in time for qualifying, which he feels will be aided by an extra day of analysis during Friday’s traditional rest day.

“We can definitely be better than what I was today,” Ricciardo said at the end of running on Thursday.

“But we do have to address the issues we had. If we do gain that little bit then, this is one of those places where you get a bit more confidence, then the lap time will come. Hopefully we will find it in the next 24 hours.

“The morning was pretty good and the initial signs were quite positive. I felt like I was able to get up to speed and into a rhythm quickly,” he added.

“We had a bit of optimism for the afternoon to build on that. But the changes didn’t seem to help. I didn’t feel as pleased with the car in the afternoon.

“We could not improve much on what we did in the morning. So quite a few places on track we have got to address things. So there are some things with set up that we can do, go back a bit on what we changed.”

Asked where he feels improvements can be made, Ricciardo, who won last year's race in Monte Carlo, replied: “A little bit everywhere for sure.

“Personally I know that Saturday there is still a bit more to come. You don’t need to do everything on Thursday.

“In myself I know that there is a little bit of lap time, but not the second we are looking for. So there will be a bit in me, but in the car, it is a bit everywhere. The middle sector can be better, in the tight twisty stuff.

“I’m still driving around here with some confidence, but there are a few places where I want to be able to come off the brakes a bit sooner and carry that speed through.

“We pinpointed a few areas, and will give the guys some homework to try and work on. I will still try to figure out a few places I can get more out of myself.”

Hulkenberg blamed his low-key performance in FP2 down to encountering traffic during his qualifying simulation run on Soft tyres.

“My soft tyre run in FP2 was quite disturbed with a lot of traffic, so there’s quite a bit of lap time in hand there,” he explained.

“But on both of my really good laps, I had guys in the middle sector who were not very helpful, so I lost a lot of lap time with it.

“So maybe a little less together, a little less happy in the afternoon. In a way, good to have a day off to pick through the data and come up with the best possible set-up for Saturday and Sunday.”