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Daniel Ricciardo’s deficit to McLaren Formula 1 team-mate Lando Norris and early exit from Styrian Grand Prix qualifying left him confused after a huge slump in performance from Friday practice.
Ricciardo was second-fastest in FP2 at the Red Bull Ring and while that position flattered McLaren he felt he was still set for a strong Saturday, but his optimism faded almost immediately in a difficult final practice session.
He was baffled by the drop in performance as in qualifying he only squeaked through Q1 and then ended up 14th fastest – half a second slower than Norris in Q2.
“I couldn’t really figure out how to find half a second or a second, because I felt like I was using all the grip available” :: Daniel Ricciardo
Norris went on to qualify fourth, which will become third on the grid after a grid penalty for Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas is applied, while Ricciardo will start 13th because Sebastian Vettel had his best Q2 laptime deleted for track limits.
Ricciardo was left searching for answers after the latest episode in his challenging adaptation to McLaren, saying the deficit to Norris was “more or less everywhere” even though he felt like he was “at the limit of everything”.
It led him to describe the situation as “a bit of a mystery”.
“The lap time never really got lower, it just hovered around that area,” he said.
There was a clear indication of where Ricciardo’s weakness was in his qualifying progress in the second and third sectors.
Sector two runs from before the braking zone at Turn 3, the top of hill, to the entry to the downhill Turn 7 left-hander in the middle of the lap.
The final sector comprises that left-right sweep and the final two corners that follow it.
Ricciardo trailed Norris by half a second in sector two alone on their first runs in Q1, losing a further three tenths in sector three.
He managed to find a couple of tenths in the middle sector on his second run having matched Norris in the first sector, but barely improved in sector three.
Ricciardo’s first run in Q2 was then marginally slower in sector two and less than a tenth quicker in sector three compared to his Q1 best.
On his second run he made a reasonable step in sector two but was just over half a tenth quicker in sector three – and around a quarter of a second slower than Norris in both.
McLaren believes that this is simply a manifestation of Ricciardo’s underlying limitation with the MCL35M, with the Red Bull Ring’s short layout comprising the sort of corners that badly punish his struggles.
“I can appreciate what I felt today wasn’t a top five feeling but it also wasn’t a P14 feeling” :: Daniel Ricciardo
“Looking at the data after qualifying, we have a good idea of what the issues are,” said McLaren boss Andreas Seidl.
“Daniel, despite the good steps he’s making forward, is still fighting with some of the limitations he’s feeling when he’s driving our car at the limit.
“That’s what we have worked on since he jumped in our car and we are making steps, but these limitations are very penalising here on that kind of track.
“And with the field being so competitive, that quickly ends up then in the position where he finished qualifying.”
Sector two has two corners with big braking zones – uphill at the slow, tight Turn 3 and downhill into the slightly faster Turn 4 right-hander – in which rotating the car efficiently and keeping the minimum speed up is key.
There is also the tricky, fast left-hander at Turn 6 that requires confidence and commitment – the same as Turns 7, 9 and 10 in the final sector, particularly with the awkward run-off that exists in the last two corners.
“The limitations he’s fighting with have been here in these [slower] corners but also in the high speed sections later on,” said Seidl.
“And that was simply continuously building up over the left and leads to this deficit we have.”
Ricciardo conceded: “I’m definitely fighting it to try to have the same kind of corner speed.
“I don’t think the fighting is coming from overdriving or wrestling the car, it’s just trying to carry a bit more speed and obviously keep the minimum speed up.
“I do find myself running out of a little bit of track and a little bit of room.
“That’s why in qualifying I couldn’t really figure out how to find half a second or a second, because I felt like I was using all the grip available.”
Since the nadir of Monaco, where he was nowhere near Norris and reached a point of peak confusion in his struggle to adapt to the McLaren, Ricciardo had shown clear signs of progress.
A qualifying crash disguised how much more competitive his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend was but his French Grand Prix was much more solid, as he shadowed Norris in qualifying and moving from ninth to sixth in the race.
But at the Red Bull Ring his Saturday slump left Ricciardo twice as far behind Norris in qualifying as his average deficit over the season so far.
And he was particularly confused by the fact the weekend had started so positively, admitting that the car did feel different in FP3 and qualifying but not to a degree that would explain his lack of pace.
It’s possible that Seidl’s theory that Ricciardo’s struggling with the same issues on the limit explains this. If the car felt good on Friday when the pace was slightly slower, Ricciardo may look strong relative to the competition. But even with a more positive feeling he then struggles to go with the step others make on Saturday and the pace reaches a new intensity.
That change in reference point could explain why he fell back and found a different feeling in the car, as Ricciardo simply has a lower ceiling than the likes of Norris at the moment and trying to match the Saturday peak is a step too far.
“I would say it was a little more comfortable yesterday,” he said.
“But when I say that I’m not talking, half a second or a second. Maybe a little bit here and there,a tenth or two but not enough to feel like I qualified the position I am.
“I can appreciate what I felt today wasn’t a top five feeling but it also wasn’t a P14 feeling.
“I don’t think it changed dramatically overnight, but obviously we were a lot slower.
“I don’t think we took a wrong turn or anything. We just couldn’t convert laptime and that’s the tricky thing to really understand.
“Already from the morning like FP3 we were a long way off and I thought maybe just the set of tyres didn’t come in because I didn’t really feel the tyre worked very well.
“But it was clear I’d already started qualifying trying to come back for a second or so deficit.”
