Ricciardo tells Renault to regain it’s winning mentality

Daniel Ricciardo sent a toughly worded message to the Renault F1 Team management after what has been his worst start to a season since 2013.

Ricciardo who made the move from Red Bull Racing to Renault which rocked last year’s driver market, noticed upon his arrival to the Renault factory at Enstone that six-year race win drought had taken a knock on the team’s confidence.

Speaking with Crash.Net‘s Hayden Cobb, Ricciardo discussed what he saw on his first day at his new team.

“From day one when I walked in there were already quite a few things already in place, from an engineering point of view and the structure of personnel and meetings. Analysis of everything, tyre analysis, chassis development, all this,” Ricciardo said.

“But I’d say that the big thing I probably felt was when I joined Red Bull, they were already winners. I noticed when I came here there was a bit of a lack of confidence because they had not won in a long time”

Ricciardo defended his move from Red Bull which many have speculated was due to Renault offering the Australian for a cool £26.5 million pounds, although that claim has been disputed.

“It is not arrogance, just in the team there is a certain level of confidence or pride, which I didn’t feel was at Red Bull’s level. For good reason. But we are trying to get that going.”

But Canada was a rare sign of hope where the Australian started fourth and finished sixth in what was his best weekend of the season, where the Australian felt that it was a sign that things were on the up.

“In Canada that was a moment I thought things had really changed,” he explained. “We qualified fourth and everyone was happy, but it wasn’t like we’d won the world title. It was like, alright we belong here now, so there was a real switch”

“That is half the battle with anything. As a driver as well, we are all talented at this level, but it is like that mentality, do you have what it takes to really believe that you can do it. It is the same with the team, mechanics and engineers”

“If they’ve got that mentality to really believe they can make they step, then that’s half the battle. That’s a big thing I’ve seen which, which is positive.”

Ricciardo heads to Spa Francorchamps, the site of his 2014 victory and his third of that particular season, eleventh in the drivers’ championship.