Ricciardo glimmer in Aus GP redemption … but Red Bull twist ‘can’t be ruled out’

A weekend filled with disappointment and deepening concern for the career of Daniel Ricciardo turned a small corner on Sunday at Albert Park.

Having started at the back of the grid in P18, the Australian jumped six positions in the race and was only denied a shot at P11 due to a virtual safety car on the final lap.

While he will need stronger performances — and many of them — to silence his critics, it was a step in the right direction that will at least lower the temperature around his spot.

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“I felt like the frustration I’d kind of put aside for today,” Ricciardo said after the race. “I kind of knew what’s done is done and tried to make the most of today.

“It’s nice there were moments in the race where I did have pace and I was able to show, ‘okay, I can still get some good stints in there’. It was still good to get the laps.”

Ricciardo entered his home Grand Prix already feeling the pressure from a slow season start, and public comments from Red Bull senior adviser Helmut Marko.

Having his best qualifying time on Saturday wiped out due to him exceeding track limits was about the worst thing Ricciardo could’ve done under the circumstances.

He had to at least make a jump up the standings on Sunday, otherwise be met with intensifying criticism.

Ultimately, Ricciardo benefited from chaos elsewhere in the field, while playing a patient game to jump six places in total.

More importantly, however, Ricciardo displayed race pace for period that his team boss, Laurent Mekies, described as “super-fast”.

The 34-year-old’s own assessment was far more restrained, but he hasn’t lost any belief that he’s going to return to the form of his former self.

“I definitely believe I can do it,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there’s any panic. I would’ve loved this season to have started better, but we’ll just keep digging.”

He added: “It’s not that we’ve changed everything and all of a sudden this car suits Yuki (Tsunoda) and doesn’t suit me. I certainly don’t feel it’s anything like that.

“I think we will find something. I thought it would’ve been this weekend. Maybe it’s next, and if it’s not the next, then we’ll keep going until it happens.

“It will happen.”

Ricciardo said that he’s not about to become “rattled”, while he detailed the next steps he believes will put him on the right path.

He explained how the team’s data feedback processes are helping him learn more about not just the car, but also his driving characteristics which were impacted from two seasons at McLaren.

Ricciardo said he’s also asking many questions of his engineers in his bid to speed up his recovery process.

Ultimately, the main goal for Ricciardo remains catapulting into a seat at Red Bull.

He hasn’t done his case any favours in 2024 thus far, but three races remains a minute snapshot within the context of a 24-race season.

Unlike Marko, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has offered both sympathy and leniency publicly towards Ricciardo.

Despite Ricciardo starting the race nowhere near either Red Bull car, Horner stopped to speak to him on the grid before the race.

Speaking of the interaction, Horner told reporters: “Obviously he had a tough weekend. It looked like he had pretty similar pace to Yuki in the race.

“Obviously he had a tough day yesterday getting that lap disallowed, so just wanted to give him a bit of encouragement.”

Asked if Ricciardo is in need of encouragement, Horner said: “He’s a big boy, he’ll pick himself up.

“F1 for a driver can be lonely so a bit of encouragement is never a bad thing.”

Horner said it’s “too early” to make a judgement about what’s next for Ricciardo, while he added that his RB teammate Tsunoda is a “very good driver”.

But in a warning of sorts to both, Horner said that a number of options are open to Red Bull, including the Australian Grand Prix winner, Carlos Sainz.

“We want to field the best paring we can and sometimes you’ve got to look outside of the pool as well,” he said.

“We’ve had a very fast unemployed driver win today. So the market is reasonably fluid with certain drivers.”

Horner said he couldn’t rule out the possibility of speaking to Sainz about re-signing him.

“You can’t rule any possibility out so you just want to take the time … and Checo’s had a great start to the season too so we’re not in any desperate rush.”