Ricciardo surprised by fourth in “terrible” car

2016 Mexican Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo said he was surprised to qualify as high as he did given how poor his car felt during the session.

“I don’t know how we’re so close to pole,” the Red Bull driver told reporters in Mexico. “I think four-tenths or something. I guess everyone just had handling issues out there. I thought it was pretty terrible balance.”

Mexican GP qualifying in pictures
“Even the last lap I don’t know how I went quicker. I’d been nearly four-tenths slower than my previous lap by turn six. It was a handful. We , you come and the altitude’s like this and the grip’s nowhere.”

“Other than that I think fourth is great. But when I see pole I’m like, four-tenths, we pretty much missed that in the first sector. It’s like that I guess. It’s tricky out there. I wasn’t very happy with the balance but to come away with fourth I think we’re a bit lucky.”

At the start of the race Ricciardo will have the benefit of being on the super-soft tyres while the Mercedes drivers ahead of him have chosen the harder soft tyres, as was also the case in the previous race.

“I managed to get one last weekend so hopefully we’ll get two,” he said. “Well I need to get three, obviously there’s Max [Verstappen] as well. It’s a long run, I think that’s going to do us well, at least the first few laps.”

“I think it worked for us. Austin, to be honest, everyone thought it was the wrong thing to do but we made it work for us.”

“I’m alright for the race, just qualifying was really weird, it confusing. And Ferrari as well: if I’m unhappy with my balance I don’t know what they’re saying”.

2016 Mexican Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    30 comments on “Ricciardo surprised by fourth in “terrible” car”

    1. How many tenths Daniel? Didn’t quite catch that :D

    2. Just deal with the fact you are OutQualified 3 times in the last 4 races………Max is using his own setups nowadays….and it seems to work perfectly. So Ricciardo…you were the one who said that if a man gets beaten fair and square…you just have to accept it like a man……So start doing so…..rolleyes

      1. 10+

        His body languages wasn’t that relaxed either in the post interview. Still, nice spitting!

      2. What? Where did he ever not?

        Verstappen fans are vicious. Anyway, have fun rigging the driver of the day tomorrow while the rest of us are you know, enjoying the race.

        1. Who said I’m a Verstappen fan?

          1. It’s pretty bloody obvious.

      3. Indiana is named El Salvador on Motorsport.com.

        1. Nice work…Sherlock ;D hahaha

          But I do think my reply has nothing to do with Verstappen..it has something to do with Ricciardo not living up to his word….nothing else

          1. How is he not? There’s hardly anything combative in his statements at all. Simply confusion.

    3. as Horner once said “he had a stonker” for a day but a stinker for all the others.
      what a pityful man danny is.

      1. Pitiful for fourth? Pitiful for saying he got lucky? Pitiful for saying he doesn’t understand the track conditions and how strange it is to lose 4 tenths in the first sector then be on pace in the next 2?

        The only thing pitiful is the obvious Verstappen fandom over a fairly standard post-qually interview. Starting to wonder if @coldfly wasn’t right to take his leave @keithcollantine. These are the kind of comments expected over at planetf1 or somewhere similar.

        1. Sorry @coldfly, obviously wasn’t you who left… Was someone else I suppose, my apologies.

          1. As a neutral of sorts I’m laughing my ass off at the notion of Ricciardo fans calling the Verstappen fans biased, especially on this website, but ok

            1. Man, if you read my comments, I’m always extremely neutral, hell most of us are. Go back to that article where Ricciardo was talking directly about Verstappen and it can be seen for days.

        2. Sorry, I’m just overly tired. Please delete these @keithcollantine (if you can be bothered). Shouldn’t have pulled an all nighter to watch qually.

      2. Max is ok… but his pit stop and “gokart” blocking ban shows his lack of experience in F1..but he will great with age.. better and DR? Only if the team wants him too..dont trust Helmet or his puppet Horner ,,,lmao @ DR’s fuel flow issues

        1. “gokart blocking ban” ? you make it look like the way Verstappen defends is no longer permitted, which is in fact NOT the case. Verstappens action have been and will be legal as the rules didn’t really change on this matter.

          The ‘evasive’ action an attacker would have to make does not implay defensive moves aren’t allowed.
          F.e. the move Verstappen did on Hamilton was 100% legit with the old AND new rules as he chose his line BEFORE the braking zone. On this matter nothing really has changed.

          Furthermore I feel and hope Verstappen will be able to put pressure on Rosberg, Verstappen (followed by Ricciardo) did best long run lap times. To start on supersoft may give them a fair chance on attacking Mercedes at the start.

          Ricciardo’s words on the ‘terrible set-up’ seem a bit out of context as he ended up just where he could have expected it based on previous laps in FP

    4. Guybrush Threepwood
      29th October 2016, 23:16

      I just don’t think Mexico is a good track for Ricciardo. I believe he was out-qualified by Kvyat last year by a similar margin as well. Probably something to do with the low grip. Having said that, if he is only beaten by his team mate by a small margin at one of his worst tracks then it’s really not that bad at all. Should be an interesting race.

    5. I don’t see how Ricciardo is being arrogant in any way. He didn’t say anything against Verstappen.

      1. People like to see stories even when there is none… 😬

      2. He could also have just said: Max was quicker this time, I’ll try to get ‘m tomorrow

    6. Everybody was struggling with the track. Lewis even said he made mistakes and was not happy with how he drove. Max’s Q3 was slower then his Q2. He probably could have beaten Rosberg.
      Rosberg was happy that he managed P2.

    7. What are these Vestappen fans on about? Is it because engilsh isn’t their first language? I’m pretty sure Daniel was just saying he was confused by the car’s behaviour. Verstappen fans seem to be extremely sore losers… and winners. When Dan beats Max in Qualifying they scream “It’s the races that count” and when Daniel beats him in the race, they start screaming about how he owned Daniel in qualifying. I think they are both extremely talented but Max is still quite at Daniel’s overall level. Max has some raw speed but so did Daniel against Vettel in the beginning. I don’t think Max’s raw speed will increase.. It tends to drop with age… He will become more rounded… Like Ricciardo has.

      1. I think Verstappen fans really can’t cope with Daniels excuses, maybe the Spain issue is still playing.
        Dan was so convinced he could have won that race and that kind of took away some shine from Verstappen flawless win. And it seem these things keep on coming back, there will always be a lot of if, when, why, what’s.

        Both drivers already seem awefully close matched, Verstappen has picked up the qualifying battle after an unexpierenced start. In races it’s been about speed and strategy and both seem strong there as well.

        It’s not easy saying which driver is better, a sure thing is Verstappen would have been much closer if we take away the start issues and DNF.

        1. Don’t forget that a vocal minority usually are the ones that say these things. A lot of more rational fans have turned away from forums, cause of them and most verstappen (or f1 fans) know that in f1 you can have a bad day or sometimes the previous great setup doesn’t work for any obvious reason.

        2. Or maybe some childish Verstappen fans cannot accept that Verstappen is not the greatest driver of all time.

          1. Arnoud van Houwelingen
            30th October 2016, 12:21

            Lol how can you be the best driver of all time when you just turned 19. Nobody is saying that. But you can’t deny hè has the potential hè can become another Alonso, Hamilton or even Schumacher or Senna. My opinion doesn’t matter but Eddie Jordan, Lauda, Brundell, DC, Piquet, Fittipaldi and Stewart all say This kid is special.

            What quali is concerned both Ric and Max complain when they lose from each other so it is not only Ric. Daniel said he messed up first sector on his second try in Q3 but Max said the same thing on Dutch TV!

            From Silverstone onwards they are pretty equal with quali because from then it is 5-5. In the last 4 races it is even 3-1 for Max so of course Daniel is grumpy about that but the difference in quali and must of the within 2 tenths of a second so they are pretty equal now in quali.

          2. That’s a rather childish comment, do you think so…? Just not getting what you’re trying to say…

    8. Max is coming on strong in gualy lately which is good to see. Now please don’t have a brainfarth during the race and take it to Merc.

      Btw I really like the evening timeslot (for us in Europe)! I can have a normal weekend and still watch the race live :)

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