Daniel Ricciardo admits that he is taking hope from teammate Lando Norris' podium at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after his own difficult race. The Australian made contact with Carlos Sainz at the Tamburello chicane on the opening lap of the event, which caused Sainz to spin into the gravel. Whilst the Ferrari was unable to continue, Ricciardo made it back to the pits for repairs, but endured a tough afternoon and eventually finished down in 18th place. It was a day of contrasting fortunes in the McLaren garage, as Norris found himself up in P3 following Charles Leclerc's error in the latter stages of the race. The Briton held onto the position, and took both his and the team's first podium of the season.
Ricciardo taking "optimism" from Norris' performance
Having had a challenging day at Imola himself, Ricciardo says that he was left feeling more positive after seeing what Norris was able to achieve. "Obviously, his race was completely different to mine, as different as it can be," Ricciardo told media, including RacingNews365.com . "So there's optimism in that. But I was really struggling, really throughout all the race." Given that he had fallen to the back of the field following the clash with Sainz, Ricciardo was the first driver to try out the slick tyres, with everybody on the grid having started the race on Intermediates following earlier heavy rainfall. "The Inter was just going backwards further and further, so I said, 'Alright, let's just try the slick. I've got nothing to lose,'" he commented. "And actually, the timing of that was good, because we got out there and caught back to the pack, and then we [were] just behind the pack, not really doing much."
Frustrations over DRS activation
Ricciardo admits that he was keen for the Drag Reduction System [DRS] to be activated. "I was asking them, 'Please activate DRS,'" he explained. "I don't know why they waited so long to activate it, because no overtakings were going to happen. And then nothing was happening, so we fitted a Hard [tyre] just to see if that gave us anything, if the others dropped off as well. "The Hard was just very, very slow for me. So yeah, data gathering and a little bit of pain, of course. But, on the flip side, [we've] got Lando's encouraging race to look at. "But, for me, it was one that I didn't really want to live through much more." McLaren currently sit fourth in the Constructors' Championship, whilst Norris holds sixth in the Drivers' standings, with Ricciardo in 11th.
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