Ricciardo feels Renault are faster than Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo thinks his Renault team are quicker than Ferrari at present – despite not having finished higher than P8 so far this year.

Ferrari were on the podium through runner-up Charles Leclerc at the opening Austrian Grand Prix, in which Esteban Ocon was eighth for Renault as Ricciardo retired. In the two subsequent races it was Ricciardo who ended up P8.

But the Australian knows Renault have not been getting the most out of their car to date in terms of results and is encouraged by the pace it can produce when performing to its optimum.

Ricciardo, who is due to join McLaren for 2021, said in quotes reported by Motorsport Week: “We’ve had eighth at every race. Look, obviously eighth isn’t bad, but I really feel we’ve had a bit more speed than an eighth-place car in all three of those races. At least the last two.

“I feel we are not far from one of those top-five, top-six finishes.

“I feel we have a bit more speed than Ferrari at the moment. At least it seems so – the race pace isn’t too bad. So it’s coming.

“It’s good to have got the points but I know there are some bigger ones around the corner.

“It looked like we had a bit more pace than McLaren in Hungary. I’m not sure where their race went but we were pretty close to the Racing Point, so not too shabby.”

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“We’ve had eighth in every race so far. It’s not bad, but I do feel we have the speed for more from the first three races. We’re not far from top six finishes, and we know bigger points are around the corner.” @danielricciardo

👉https://t.co/pJ3j1oxsGg#RSspirit #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/U9Zv21qr3T

— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) July 19, 2020

Ricciardo hopes Renault will be able to show greater potential with their upgrades at the forthcoming pair of races at Silverstone on August 2 and 9, the British Grand Prix and 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

He added: “Updates are always pretty nice and handy and Silverstone is one of those tracks…there’s some low-speed stuff but it’s pretty flowing with medium and high-speed corners.

“[That’s] really where the car is loaded and where you see the front end-plate, those types of corners where it drags and everyone is trying to work on this area of the car to keep some downforce in it and that high-speed roll.

“Silverstone will test that and see if these updates can help.”

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