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Daniel Ricciardo reckons the simulator work over six months and returning to Red Bull helped him regain his mojo.
Speaking in the Thursday driver’s press conference, the Australian believes the familiar atmosphere at Red Bull helped him regain his confidence and improve the areas he lacked in since his departure from the team.
Asked whether there were bets by Helmut Marko over his simulator performance, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“Firstly, no bets.”
Interjecting his reply, Max Verstappen joked saying:
“He likes his bets, but he actually goes quite far, Helmut. There’s always quite a bit of money involved.”
Explaining the improvements on the simulator sessions since earlier in the year, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“Yeah. OK. Really? Alright. Let's see how the first few races go and then I might start making some bets. The sim. There was, I think, a lot of… You know, when I first drove the sim, I could see it now that a bit of time had passed. And, you know, obviously, I haven't been in a race seat for a few months."
"I could kind of see myself last year, as an example, that was, yeah, lacking. And I knew it at the time, but you know, you see things a bit more clearly, probably, with hindsight as well. So, yeah, I was just kind of lacking a little bit of that confidence and that just kind of going out there and just driving, in simple terms."
The Australian added:
"You just get probably other thoughts that creep into your mind. And I think, also going back into Red Bull, you know, it was exciting for me, but I was also, for sure, a little bit nervously excited. So yeah, probably just that comfort or confidence, you know, those first few runs on the sim. It took a little bit to probably just shake a few things out and try to just find my old self again.”
Helmut Marko had claimed earlier in the year that Daniel Ricciardo had not matched Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez in the simulator sessions. Asked about how he turned around his performance on the simulator, the Australian claimed that the familiar atmosphere at Red Bull helped him regain his confidence.
Despite a few bad sessions, the eight-time Grand Prix winner managed to regain lost performance and get up to pace. He believes that it took a few sessions in the simulator over time to regain his mojo. According to Christian Horner, his lap in the RB19 at the Silverstone Pirelli tire test was good enough to put him on the front row.
The test was his first run in an F1 car after he was dropped by McLaren. In his stint with the Woking team, both Horner and Marko analyzed the 34-year-old as a different driver since his time at Red Bull.
Daniel Ricciardo credits former Red Bull engineer who contributed to his resurgence
Daniel Ricciardo claims his former Red Bull engineer Simon Rennie who now handles the simulator was responsible for helping him gain his confidence back. The Australian felt the familiar work relationship with his former Red Bull engineer was key to him understanding the RB19. He believes it still has similar DNA as the last one he drove in 2018.
Explaining how he regained his confidence and was able to translate it on track, Daniel Ricciardo said:
“I think what helped a lot was working with Simon, so Simon Rennie, my engineer at Red Bull back when I was racing there. He's been running the sim. So I think that as well, kind of getting a bit of familiarity, working with him, kind of quickly got my confidence back. And obviously you look at the data and try to learn from Max and Checo who are very familiar with that car."
Daniel Ricciardo added:
"But yeah, I think the really nice thing was that once I shook off the cobwebs, although the car is different to five years ago or so, it still felt, for me, like a Red Bull Car. I felt like everything that I used to really like about the car was still existing in like the DNA and then I think that as well filled me with some confidence that I could start to drive the way that I like or the way I want."
"So the trajectory then was good. And as I said, the last tick of the box was driving the real car to make sure that I could do it on track. And the test went well and we're in a good place.”
Modern sophisticated simulators used by F1 teams have a lot of complex data that helps understand a driver’s performance level. The Silverstone Pirelli test was a translation and testimony of the work Daniel Ricciardo carried out as a Red Bull reserve driver.
Apart from lap times in a test, the team had more data available at the Pirelli to conclude that he was ready to be in an F1 car again. While Nyck De Vries struggled in the AlphaTauri AT04, Daniel Ricciardo explained to Sportskeeda that he was not too worried about the limitations of the car.
