While Nico Hülkenberg says that the Renault F1 Team didn’t have a “points worthy car” in the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo says he needs to look at his own performance as well as the car’s to see why Renault failed to score in Austria.
Ricciardo started the race from twelfth on the grid and only ran inside to the top ten for several laps due to a lengthy opening stint on Pirelli’s medium compound tyres. Despite having fresher soft tyres in the latter stages, the Australian was only able to climb as high as twelfth by the finish.
Ricciardo says that Renault now need to investigate why they struggled in Austria but admits that it’s perhaps not all down to the car.
“It was a tough weekend, for sure,” said Ricciardo. “From lap one today it was tricky and I struggled for grip. We improved as the race progressed, managed a decent stint on the Softs at the end, but it was probably a bit too late.
“We need to figure out why this weekend was so tough. There’s stuff we can improve, but I won’t put it all down to the car. I’ll look at myself and see what I can do better as well.
“Something wasn’t right this weekend and Nico shared the same feelings too. We’ll do our best to figure it out and get on top of it.”
While his former team were victorious in Austria, Daniel slipped to tenth in the drivers’ championship having scored on just three occasions this season.
