Ricciardo assures no ‘fluke’ about Renault success

Jamie Woodhouse
Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo said nothing about Renault’s strong results was a “fluke”, instead they were up there and “persisted”.

On first glance P5 in the 2020 Constructors’ Championship seems slightly underwhelming for the French manufacturer, but looking back across the season there were actually many positives to take.

Atop that list without doubt was the pair of podiums which Ricciardo scored at the Eifel and Emilia Romagna GPs, alongside three further P4 finishes in the 17-race season.

Overall Renault scored 181 points, 90 more than last season with four fewer races to work with.

So, the progress for Renault in 2020 was clear, and Ricciardo said none of it was fluked.

“If I’m to generalise it, I would say it has been a success but I guess there are levels of success,” Ricciardo is quoted by GPFans as he reflected on his two-year stint with the team.

“Obviously, real success would be winning a title in the two years but definitely stepping on the podium a couple of times made it feel like a success.

“It’s not as though we fluked a couple of results. I really believe we were there and we persisted. There were so many fourth places and then we finally made it happen.

“But I think the turnaround as well, to see the step from last year to this year, shows that the work that was done last year, the building blocks, definitely came to fruition and we definitely got a lot of use out of that learning from 2019.”

Daniel Ricciardo Renault

Ricciardo didn’t want to start taking all the credit for Renault’s improvements, but definitely thought his feedback over the two seasons was a major benefit for the team.

“Obviously, I’m not claiming it all but some feedback I was giving and trying to help out and everyone was trying to move forward but yeah, I see it as a success from that point of view,” he explained.

“I see a lot more confidence in the team as well, just in terms of personnel and there is that feeling now of ‘we can do it’.

“It felt like I walked into a bit more of a timid environment last year early on and it’s not a criticism, it’s just the team wasn’t used to it.

“They hadn’t been successful in quite a few years and everyone can obviously start to have some self-doubts.”

Ricciardo makes the move to McLaren for 2021 with his seat to be taken by two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso as Renault welcome in their new era as Alpine.

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