Australian Daniel Ricciardo is yet to register a point in this year’s world championship and failed to finish the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Monday morning (AEDT).
But the McLaren driver had a bright outlook on his performance in Jeddah when prompted for his thoughts in a post-race interview.
Ricciardo climbed from 14th to ninth in the second race of the season but disaster struck with 15 laps remaining, when an engine failure forced the 32-year-old to retire.
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“I lost drive so it could be a number of things, maybe drive shaft if I was to guess. But I’m no mechanic so don’t take my word for it,” Ricciardo said.
“Obviously we could have had double points, which is pretty awesome from where we were a week ago.
“It was looking all right. There are positives to take from the weekend, for sure. We still have a way to go but certainly some progress, which is nice.”
Ricciardo pointed to the MCL36 – McLaren’s new car for 2022 – when asked to elaborate on his comments.
“The characteristics of this circuit seemed to help us, and although we weren’t setting the timesheets alight, we had a bit more confidence in the car.”
McLaren scored its first points of the season thanks to a strong drive from Briton Lando Norris, who qualified in 11th but finished in seventh.
Ricciardo and Norris had finished in 14th and 15th respectively in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Formula 1 is now set to visit Australia for the first time since 2019, after COVID-19 twice wiped it from the calendar, and Ricciardo was clearly ecstatic when asked about returning to race in Melbourne.
“I’m excited to go home and compete there,” Ricciardo said.
“For now, we’ll keep chipping away. We can’t promise amazing results yet, but we’ll keep at it and I’m sure better things are on the horizon.
“Looking at Melbourne and the changes they’ve made, I think it is going to be quite flowing, and hopefully that suits us.”
Among the changes to the Albert Park track are wider corners at turns one, three and six, as well as the removal of the chicane at turns nine and 10.
The changes will lead to more aggressive racing and faster lap times.
As seen in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the new cars for 2022 are also leading to more aggression and quicker lap times.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had engrossing battles in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“I think everything we hoped would come out of these new cars is bearing true, and watching the battle for the lead is really awesome to see…” Ricciardo said.
“Of course, I want to be there, but to know we can fight hard for that this year is really exciting. Hopefully we’re battling for some bigger positions soon.”
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