Ricciardo won't 'moan and cry' about early McLaren woes
Monday, 21 March 2022
The Australian vowed to get on with it.
Daniel Ricciardo qualified in 18th on Saturday as McLaren endured a tough start to the Bahrain Grand Prix, but the Australian vowed to "get on with it".
McLaren were fighting with Ferrari at the front of the Formula 1® midfield in 2021, yet the first weekend of the new season suggests the Scuderia have left their rivals behind.
Ferrari had Charles Leclerc on pole and Carlos Sainz in the top three, with all teams using their engines performing well in qualifying.
By contrast, Ricciardo failed to make Q2, and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris was little better in 13th.
A challenge in Sunday's race appears highly unlikely, but McLaren will continue to work to get their young campaign back on track as soon as possible.
"The only way we're going to move forward is if we put our eyes forward and get on with it," said Ricciardo, who missed the end of pre-season due to coronavirus. "And I think that's important as well for team morale.
"If we just sit and moan and cry... Of course, in qualifying, I'm not happy with 18th, but there's no good being upset about it and not doing anything.
"It's going to require action and effort from all of us, but I think that should motivate us to do better and want to do better.
"I know we believe that we can be obviously a lot further up the grid, so it's fuel for the fire. It might be a slow burn for now, but that's all we can do to make things better."
Norris is certainly not expecting sudden improvement on Sunday, while he added a turnaround in time for next week's Saudi Arabian GP is also asking a lot.
"There are still a lot of positives – just sadly more negatives than positives," he said. "It's just about time and working on them. I think now we understand them more than ever; it's simply about putting them into action.
"But it's not an overnight job, it's not something that we're going to turn up [on Sunday] and be amazing, or turn up to Saudi and be amazing.
"It will take time, and [the team] are going to be working hard to try to make those improvements."
A tough start to the season for @danielricciardo
— F1 Australian Grand Prix (@ausgrandprix) March 20, 2022
The Aussie finished 14th at the #BahrainGP 🇦🇺#F1 pic.twitter.com/9kXDfBFsvn
