Formula 1

Daniel Ricciardo hopeful for improvements at Renault in 2020

2 Mins read
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd.

Renault F1 Team‘s Daniel Ricciardo is hopeful he will become a stronger force within the team in 2020, particularly outside of race weekends, encouraging team building.

Finishing his first season with the French outfit last year, he believed that he could have got more out of the car and performed better.

The Australian racer made the move from Red Bull Racing to Renault at the end of the 2018 season, in the midst of what had been a difficult year for the team, who dropped to fifth in the Constructors’ standings.

As part of Renault’s continued drive for improvement this season, the 30-year-old said he would like to strengthen his relationships with colleagues away from the race track.

“For next year I’ve got some ideas of things I can do more or better. I feel like I integrated myself into the team well this year, but I look back and am like I can do more,” Ricciardo is quoted as saying.

He went on to say he hopes to have started bringing the team closer together even before the start of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

“I want to have a bit more presence before the season starts, before testing, but also have some ideas which of things we can do together as a team to get us into the season – not just technically, but as a team unit I want to get to Barcelona feeling like we got some momentum before the season even starts.

He went on to say that he also hoped to raise morale within the team, noting that he doesn’t even get the chance to speak to team principal Cyril Abiteboul.

“Even some team morale stuff, call it team building and some activities. More importantly to spend time with the team, even away from the track.

“At the track even like with Cyril [Abiteboul, Renault team principal] sometimes it is ‘hi’ and that is all you get over the weekend because we are busy. So you don’t always get good quality time at the circuit.

“I feel that to take this relationship to the next level, getting time away from the track is good. Just having that feeling, even for the guys, if they know each other a bit more, they will want to work a little bit harder for each other and make some good stuff happen,” he concluded.

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F1 reporter for The Checkered Flag. Also a second year Journalism student at Robert Gordon University. Feel free to follow me on Twitter at @findlaygrant5.
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