Ricciardo: It ‘feels like we’re back to square one’

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo says it feels like the team are “back to square one” after a tough weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The manufacturer built some positive momentum at their home race in France after Nico Hulkenberg finished in the points, this coming off the back of a double-points finish in Canada, but the team crashed back down to reality around the Red Bull Ring.

Ricciardo crossed the line P12, while Hulkenberg came home P13.

Rivals McLaren got both cars into the points, Lando Norris claimed P6, while Carlos Sainz recovered to P8 despite starting P19 after his grid penalty.

#AustrianGP 🏁@danielricciardo P12 @HulkHulkenberg P13#RSspirit pic.twitter.com/AmVP3Po5qq

— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) June 30, 2019

The gap in the Constructors’ Championship is now up to 20 points in McLaren’s favour, and Ricciardo insists it’s important to pick the team up after a difficult race weekend.

“Obviously we hoped for something a bit better today, but it was a tough one,” he told Sky F1.

“I knew there was more hope than expectation as we hadn’t had the pace all weekend.

“It’s important to understand it and to pick everyone up as it’s been one bad weekend. We’ll get back into the points, but we just need to go away and figure out why and how.

“I need to figure out what I can do better as I’m still not perfect. Consistently, I still need to be better and hopefully Silverstone can be smoother for us.

“I felt this weekend we changed a lot with the car, but it still feels like we’re back at square one so normally when you throw a whole lot of things at something and it’s not reacting, we’re missing something else, but I don’t know what that is yet. It was a little all over the place.”

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