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Daniel Ricciardo made his debut behind the wheel of a McLaren Formula 1 car on the team’s first promotional day of running at Silverstone today.
The 31-year-old took over the newly-launched McLaren-Mercedes MCL35 at Silverstone for the afternoon after team-mate Lando Norris gave the car its initial laps in the morning.
McLaren has released images and videos of the day, which is being held in predictably wet conditions, on social media with both Norris and Ricciardo behind the wheel.
Here we go. 🙌@danielricciardo heads out for his first laps in a McLaren. #SendIt pic.twitter.com/fLrfvfb2Um
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 16, 2021
“It feels longer than two months actually [since the 2020 season ended], it always takes a little bit to get the cobwebs out,” said Ricciardo after his run.
“And these greasy conditions don’t fill you with a lot of confidence after it’s been a while you’ve not been in the car.
“But it’s nice, everything’s run really smoothly. We completed what we had to so that’s really all you can ask for.
“And I know that the more laps I turn, the more confident and comfortable I’ll feel with this team.”
While this is Ricciardo’s first time driving for the team, he has spent time at McLaren’s Woking base this year and has been settling in well ahead of his debut season with the team.
Shakedown images courtesy of McLaren
Asked about the biggest challenge of fitting in at McLaren, Ricciardo replied: “I think fitting in, in terms of feeling like you’re part of the team, integrated into the driving side but into all of it, into the engineering, into the strategy.
“I’ve already had so many meetings here at the MTC with not only my engineer, but with the whole racing department. It’s feeling like you’re sitting in the room with a voice and with enough knowledge that what you say will be taken on board.
“That whole integration into all areas of the race team, that’s probably got a lot more power than just being the driver. I think feeling like you can sit in every room and have a presence, that’s probably the most important, but also the most difficult thing to get going.”
While test days like this one are designated for promotional running, they are also used for car shakedowns and this allows McLaren the chance to ensure all is working as expected having switched to Mercedes engines ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain next month.
Teams are allowed two such filming days, with the distance run limited to 100km using specified Pirelli demo tyres. McLaren is scheduled to use its second and final day at the same venue on Thursday.
Ricciardo’s first experience of driving with the team is an important step in McLaren’s objective of ensuring he feels like a team veteran by the time he has his first race outing in Bahrain at the end of March.
“Regarding the integration of Daniel, our goal is clear – we want to make sure that once we hit the track at Bahrain at the first race that it doesn’t feel like Daniel is doing the first race with us,” said Seidl of Ricciardo’s pre-season preparations.
“Based on that, we worked out a clear plan with a clear focus on the technical and operational side of each of the boxes we have to tick together with him to make sure he’s ready in Bahrain at the first race, in addition to plans that are also in place to integrate him on the commercial side, communication side, marketing side of the team.
“We obviously had a lot of online sessions with him in order to make him familiar with the way we work with our car, with our systems and then in the last weeks Daniel was also on site here, doing simulator sessions, seat fits and so on, with the engineers and mechanics in order to get ready and feel well-prepared.
“Now it’s simply time to get back on track to get him into the car, to get his feedback.
“I’m very happy with the preparation so far given the circumstances we are all in.”
