F1 News: Daniel Ricciardo Found Confidence In Mexico Qualifying - "Feel Like My Old Self"
It looks as if Daniel Ricciardo has got back the much-needed confidence he was looking for, after a surprising P4 finish in Mexico qualifying. The push put him right in between the Red Bull boys- Max Verstappen in P3 and Sergio Perez in P5.
The boost in performance and confidence comes at a time when Ricciardo enters the second weekend after his long break of five Grands Prix, which he took to undergo treatment and surgery on his wrist.
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He secured sixth in FP2 on Friday before slipping back to ninth during FP3 on Saturday. During qualifying, he took fourth in Q1 and fifth in Q2. Of course, he was helped in both instances by teammate Yuki Tsunoda who focussed on towing the Australian as his weekend was compromised by a power unit penalty.
Speaking to Sky F1, Ricciardo said he was feeling confident and positive about the new setup that they tried on his car. He said:
“I know I haven't done much this year race-wise, but I feel a lot like my old self.
"And I feel like yeah, I can do well. A lot of things that were there, and it kind of brought out a lot of confidence.
"Even FP3 this morning, I was P9, and I wasn't happy at all with my lap. But as opposed to kind of being frustrated with that, it gave me confidence coming into quali that I can clean it up and we're going to be well inside the top 10.”
He also claimed that the Mexico qualifying was a much-needed positive step after a "pretty miserable" United States Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit of the Americas. He added:
“Honestly I'm not just saying this now because of the result, but already Sunday night in Austin, I was just wanting it to be Friday practice.
"I wanted to get back in the car, and felt like there were some things left on the table. And there were some things also with set-up that we knew we could try this weekend having a more conventional [non-sprint] weekend, and some things that I definitely wanted to try and had some confidence in.
"So yeah, from lap one yesterday, I felt really confident. And P4 is maybe a little more than we thought, but really coming into quali it wasn't about getting Q3, it was how far can we get inside?
"So I think as a team, we definitely had confidence. But I thought maybe with the perfect lap, it's a P6, P7, not quite a P4. So it's cool.”
Speaking on his Q3 session, Ricciardo added that a lot of precision and finesse was one factor that helped on a rather slippery track:
“It's a unique track where we run pretty much max downforce. But it's super slippery, because the altitude."
"It's one of those ones that you can never be too clean and too smooth, because you just won't be fast. But it is a track where you can't afford to overdrive it, it's very easy for the lap to kind of unravel and get away from you.
"Just a lot of precision and that finesse and you feel like you could always go quicker. But the moment you try, you end up sliding and losing a bit.”
