Daniel Ricciardo states his P12 qualifying position in Chinese GP is better than P11 in Suzuka

Daniel Ricciardo believes he is in a better position for a points finish in China than he was in Japan. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda, the RB driver was optimistic about his chances of a points finish in the race.

Since FP1, Daniel Ricciardo has managed to outpace his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in all three sessions including the sprint race. He outpaced his Japanese teammate by four-tenths of a second in the practice session and approximately three-tenths of a second in the sprint shootout. In the sprint race, the Australian finished 11th after starting fourteenth on the grid.

Given the decent turnaround at a circuit where he has been successful in the past, Daniel Ricciardo believes 12th place in qualifying is a positive sign. Although he got outpaced by his teammate only by half a tenth of a second in Japan and qualified 11th, the weekend had its share of ups and downs. He was replaced by reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa for FP1, which allowed him little track time in Suzuka to build up to a decent weekend.

The crash in the Japanese GP didn’t help his result or ability to understand his comfort level with the setup tweaks on his car. However, being on the go from the first session and getting on top of his performance woes in the sprint, the Perth-born driver felt that he had a better chance of a points finish at the Shanghai International circuit. He believes that he does have the race pace to get past the Alfa Romeo’s or Haas’ drivers ahead of him based on his sprint performance.

Asked by Sportskeeda about his optimism going into the race based on his sprint race result, Daniel Ricciardo replied:

“Yeah. Like its I guess, like qualifying 12th, like it's the, I guess, qualifying 12, I mean even Japan, I qualified 11th, but I feel like this 12th is better. Well, 'cause yeah, I was encouraged by this morning. I feel like we do have, we had a probably a bit more race pace than than I thought. And With Kevin and Joe in front once I had a couple laps of clear air. I felt like we caught them and and caught them more, then we were and had a little bit more to show. So yeah lets see 12th is quite close to points long race, I feel good. Let's see what happens.”

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Daniel Ricciardo expects a one pitstop strategy at the Chinese GP race

Daniel Ricciardo believes that it is likely that there will be tire degradation in the Chinese race which could lead to a one-pitstop strategy for most. Without being able to give a guarantee of the possibility, he expects the front-end limited characteristics to lead to some dramatic moments for some as the track can make the front tires grain excessively. Therefore in such a scenario, the RB driver expects some drivers to potentially opt for a two-stop strategy for tire changes.

When asked if there was lesser degradation than expected, he felt there were drivers having their moments throughout the weekend and expects the same in the race. Asked if the tire degradation was less dramatic than expected, Daniel Ricciardo said:

“It's like the race or the sprint this morning there was definitely some deg (tire degradation), but yeah, it didn't completely go away. So yeah, it kind of, I felt like initially it was, we were, I'd say, most of us, because I could see the cars in front as well sliding and that. We were probably thinking, oh, this could be tough but then it seemed to kind of stabilize.”

On his expectations of how the race could pan out, he added:

“So it's probably one stop but I don't know if it's one of those, like definitely one stop race. Because I think there is still some and it's quite a unique maybe front limited circuit. So you can still get some maybe front tires opening up and causing some problems yeah probably the favorite is one -stop but potentially two still I don't know if it's guaranteed.”

Under pressure to deliver a solid result in the last three races and criticised heavily for his form, Daniel Ricciardo has been able to show progress in the last four track sessions. With a new chassis on his car which he believed could make the difference, the 34-year-old was able to manage to overcome his qualifying woes to look forward to a better race. With a decent build-up to the race, he seemed to have renewed confidence to deliver a noteworthy result to kick-start his 2024 campaign.