Ricciardo: Renault moved on from being ‘hit or miss’
Daniel Ricciardo believes Renault have now finally found consistent form with the R.S.20, rather than being “hit or miss”.
It has been a slow process for Renault to find their feet again in Formula 1 ever since returning in 2016, but four years on the French manufacturer are now finally starting to become a consistent challenger at the head of the midfield pack.
And Ricciardo took that up another notch by scoring the team’s first podium since Australia 2011 with P3 at the Eifel Grand Prix.
That extended the Aussie’s run of top-six finishes to five straight races, and he feels Renault have now finally found that key to consistency.
“From the start of the year, it’s been a new car from last year in terms of it’s been a lot better,” he is quoted by Motorsport.com.
“The rear of the car has picked up a lot of downforce, so that’s given us drivers confidence to nail the throttle and get off the corner better.
“It was around Silverstone, I think, we had a few updates and that really just felt like we were able to basically find a bit more ease in setting the car up and it wasn’t so hit-or-miss.
“Last year I felt we, at times, could be very fast or well outside the top ten. I think now we’re just able to sit in that sweet spot and obviously the performance is there.
“It’s proven now: we’ve done it on low downforce and high downforce circuits. So, yeah, I think it’s a good package and we should have confidence now for the remainder of the season.”
10 years since we last stepped on the podium, what a feeling! Team effort 👏🏆#RSspirit #EifelGP pic.twitter.com/HiW1tWjL5j
— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) October 11, 2020
Get your hands on the official Renault 2020 collection via the Formula 1 store
Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul has said that going forward his outfit now need to be become “addicts” for success to build upon Ricciardo’s podium.
“The amount of work that goes into a programme like this one, and I’m not just talking about me, I’m talking about the 1000 more team members that compose this team,” he told Autosport.
“They need a bit of emotion, they need some energy.
“Keep in mind that we grew massively.
“Most of the people who have joined the team are young people, who have never experienced the emotion of winning, or even being on the podium.
“So we need to take that and we need to make them addicts to success for them to develop more, to build more success.
“And, yes, right now, we need a bit of circumstance to be on that podium.
“But the focus will be from Monday onwards first to understand the problems that we’ve had.”
Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1 and like our Facebook page.
