Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo was pleased to take his first podium of the year at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but feels the squad must do better if they are to catch the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Scuderia Ferrari.
“I’m happy to be back on the podium today, it’s the first one of the season for me which is nice but actually the race was quite a lonely one.”
It is a well-known fact that the Australian loves a good on track battle, but Sunday’s race did not allow for that scenario, and Ricciardo spent the majority of the grand prix racing by himself.
An engine failure for Valtteri Bottas gifted the Red Bull driver third place, but Ricciardo will take whatever good fortune comes his way, regardless.
“I didn’t have any real battles and my race was more about trying to keep a rhythm and maintain concentration.
“I got a bit fortunate with Valtteri’s problem towards the end of the race, which bumped me up to third, but of course, I’m still happy to be up there again and see all the smiles from the team.”
Though finishing on the podium is always nice, the Milton Keynes based squad are still none the wiser to as to why they are so far behind the top two teams at present, and will be looking to investigate that during the time out between now and the next race in Monaco.
In the meantime, Ricciardo believes further progress can definitely be made; it may just be longer coming than they had originally anticipated.
“Today we will enjoy the podium but tomorrow we need to understand how to further close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes.
“I want to take the positives from this weekend; we will keep working hard and chipping away. I don’t think it’s impossible to catch the leaders at some point, maybe it will take a little longer than we had hoped but we will get there.”
With the Monaco Grand Prix next up on the calendar, the Australian is hopeful that a strong performance is on its way, with further updates in the pipeline to help that drive forward, as well as counting on the unpredictability of the Monte Carlo race.
“I think I got the maximum out of the car today and moving on to Monaco we will have a few more updates, which will hopefully give us another step, and at that track it’s fair to say anything can happen.”
