Daniel Ricciardo delivers verdict on ‘painful’ Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend
Daniel Ricciardo failed to match his recent form in Vegas.
Daniel Ricciardo said the rhythm just never came for him as he struggled with a “painful” Las Vegas Grand Prix.
After an impressive return from injury, Ricciardo’s comeback story took a dent under the lights of Vegas with the Australian finishing outside of the points.
As to what caused such a loss of performance, Ricciardo highlighted AlphaTauri’s difficulty to warm up their tyres.
Daniel Ricciardo’s ‘humiliating’ moment in Vegas
Ricciardo qualified in 15th but could only improve one place in Vegas and said the multiple safety cars did not help his efforts.
“I was definitely optimistic coming into the race,” he said. “I knew where we’ve been suffering this weekend. It’s really just getting the tyre working so I knew the start would be difficult.
“But then once everything kind of settles, I felt like we would be able to get into a rhythm and show a little bit more pace, but that wasn’t the case. I think as well with all the restarts, we suffered so much more than the others with warm up.
“I was getting overtaken on the outside of turn three and the outside is really slippery so for them to have more grip on the outside I was just like ‘oh, man.’ It was pretty, pretty humiliating.
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“We honestly just couldn’t do anything. So, a bit of a painful weekend. I think it’s certainly surface specific, but we can’t neglect it.”
Luckily for Ricciardo, next week’s race in Abu Dhabi will be significantly warmer meaning tyre warm up should be less of an issue for the team.
“I think that should kind of hopefully reset itself,” he suggested. “I think it’s a more medium downforce so optimistic coming into that weekend. For now, it’s about just resting and recovering the next two days and then get out to some warmth.”
Read next: Las Vegas GP: Max Verstappen triumphs in chaotic race with late Leclerc-Perez drama
