McLaren happy with Ricciardo’s “big step forward” at F1’s British GP

After struggling for pace in the Austria double-header, Ricciardo enjoyed one of his strongest weekends of the season at Silverstone.

He qualified within a tenth of teammate Lando Norris in qualifying and finished one place behind him in the sprint race.

Ricciardo fended off Carlos Sainz in the closing 20 laps to finish fifth - his best result for McLaren this season.

Speaking after Sunday’s race, Seidl said: “As Daniel said also after the race, there are still things obviously to improve, to match Lando but the important thing is he’s making steps, feeling more comfortable in the car in both quali and the race and it was a big step forward compared to previous races which was good.

“I think if he said turning point is if he thinks he can pull it off now more often and if he can repeat the same performance in Hungary. In terms of the specifics that’s something that should be answered by Daniel. He just felt more comfortable pushing the car at the limit. The track layout suited him more as well here, to feel comfortable to push at the limit and yeah it’s important to show the same again in Hungary in two weeks.”

Despite scoring his best result of the season, Ricciardo acknowledged that there’s still a lot of work to do if he is to get on level terms with his teammate.

“It is getting there,” Ricciardo added. “I’m still not super quick, let’s say, I’m getting more comfortable but there is certainly some parts of the race and moments where I am like ah… Just not quite there. It is getting there; I’m creeping up on it. 

“It has taken 10 races to get a top-five, so I’m aware that is still probably going to be a steady process. I won’t expect it overnight but I’m certainly going to keep working hard at it.”