Ricciardo stopped caring about the statistics

Editor

Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he stopped caring about the intra-team statistics as reliability became a factor in a dismal 2018 for the Australian.

He took two victories in the opening six races, but from there, he failed to score another podium in the remaining fifteen races.

The Aussie admitted that seeing his Red Bull team-mate, Max Verstappen, score victories later in the season was frustrating, but that he stopped caring about the statistics.

“I think I got to a point, probably around the mid-season break, where I just didn’t care about the stats anymore,” Ricciardo admitted.

“I knew I was probably going to get done in qualifying this year, who cares? I may end up with fewer points, who cares?

“I just want to do what I can and if it works, it works and if it doesn’t life goes on. Of course, I did care, but it was just that I didn’t want to put it on a pedestal.

“I already had so many other things on my mind. I didn’t need to fill it with more expectations. If I did the best job I could, maybe I could beat him but if not, so be it and I’ll live to fight another day.”

Despite a decent start to the season, the Australian admitted that it was far from perfect, even with two victories…

“When you think about it, I won two out of six, but with the other four actually, there was always some drama,” he added.

“In Melbourne, I had a penalty before the season even began, so I was already ready to put my fricking elbow through a wall.

“In Bahrain, my race was over after a lap. In China, I win in kind of a spectacular fashion. Then there’s Baku, and we all know what happened in Baku. In Barcelona, I spun behind the safety car and then in Monaco I won.

“As good as the first six races were, it kind of shaped the whole year really and that craziness has continued.”

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