Ricciardo hopes pain leads to gains after “tough” run to 16th

Daniel Ricciardo endured a “painful weekend” in Saudi Arabia, the RB driver delayed by a calamitous pit stop just after the start and spinning late in Saturday night’s 50-lap race to finish in 16th place.

Ricciardo, who qualified 14th on Friday night in a session where teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished inside the top 10, had any thoughts of a comeback quashed on lap six of the race when all but four drivers piled into the pits to change tyres under safety car conditions following a crash by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

In the pit lane chaos, Ricciardo’s tyres were about to be fitted to the wrong side of his car before the team realised the mistake, and a jack failure meant Ricciardo spent more than a minute in the pits before rejoining in last place, his chance of a top-10 result gone.

Ricciardo caught the chasing pack being held up by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, but then spun on the penultimate lap and came home two places behind Tsunoda in a frustrating night for the newly-named team.

“It was tough, I think coming into it we knew it’d be tough,” Ricciardo said.

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“Then we had a slow pit stop and a few laps from the end I ate a bit too much kerb at Turn 1 and had a spin. But that kind of summed up the weekend.

“I think the only thing that’s probably keeping me a little bit optimistic now is we did find a few things, so that’s positive when you know that.

“I’ve driven a long time, I know when things don’t feel quite right. On one hand it’s nice to find a few things, but on another it meant that it was a pretty painful weekend. That’s obviously frustrating.”

Ricciardo, who will head back to the team’s base for simulator sessions before flying home to Perth ahead of his home race in Melbourne in a fortnight’s time, remains optimistic of a better performance at Albert Park, with RB one of four teams (with Williams, Sauber and Alpine) yet to score points in 2024.

“It feels like it’s been a pretty slow start to the year, but it’s been two races,” he said.

“I know how quickly this thing can turn around … there’s not too much head-scratching right now. It’s just a frustrating weekend, but it’s not that we don’t have answers. I think it’s quite clear.

“Melbourne will be better, I know we’ll fix it and have an equal playing field and a strong showing. We’ve just got to polish her up and make sure it’s good to go for Melbourne.”

Daniel's Saudi Arabia Grand Prix by the numbers

• Qualified: 14th
• Race: 16th
• Fastest lap: 1min 33.323secs (16th), lap 47
• Points this event: 0
• Points this season: 0 (16th in world championship)