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Daniel Ricciardo has had a rather inconsistent first season with McLaren. While the Australian achieved the team's first win in nine years at Monza, he struggled to keep up with teammate Lando Norris. That was evident once again after a disappointing weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix, where Ricciardo failed to make it to Q3 while Norris secured P6 on the grid.
McLaren have demonstrated a lot of potential this season with some phenomenal drives by Norris, especially in the first half of the season. This indicates Ricciardo has the potential to do better, provided he is able to adapt his driving style to extract the most from the car. Having said that, there is no doubt that the car does struggle in certain aspects.
Regarding the weaknesses of the car and where he sees the need to improve himself, Ricciardo told Motorsport Week:
"Ultimately, these kinds of long and medium-speed corners are where our car is challenged the most."
Not yet fully in tune with the McLaren F1 car, Daniel Ricciardo believes that Norris, having acclimatized to the orange cars for three seasons, has played a role in the young Brit's ability to excel. All the same, he does not use it as an excuse.
Ricciardo added:
"It is just half a tenth but half a tenth in these long corners adds up to three or four tenths. So it is really just that. It is definitely a weakness of the car, but ultimately still the weakness of me not being able to get the car working well in limited areas."
While Daniel Ricciardo has certainly grown more comfortable with the McLaren over the course of the season, he still has a long way to go to catch up to Norris, who is ahead by 48 points in the drivers' standings.
Daniel Ricciardo thinks Norris "is driving very well"
Aside from his teammate, Norris also leads both Ferrari drivers in the standings. Ricciardo has been all praise for the Brit's consistent performances this season.
Here's what Daniel Ricciardo had to say about Norris:
"If it was easy, I would’ve perfected it already. I think Lando is driving very well. Any questions about him, he has proved to everyone this year that he is top-level."
As he heads into the final two races of the season and gears up for 2022, Ricciardo's fans will certainly be hoping to see the "Honey Badger" find his footing with McLaren and make his way back towards the top.
