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Daniel Ricciardo has had a rough start to the 2022 F1 season. He has been unable to close the performance gap between himself and his teammate Lando Norris. While the Briton has already bagged a podium this season, the Australian driver only has 11 points to his name so far.
During a press conference ahead of the Monaco GP, Ricciardo seemed optimistic about the upcoming weekend. He has had some spectacular drives around the track in the past. One of them was when he won the 2018 Monaco GP despite his power unit fading on him.
When questioned during the press conference whether he was looking forward to racing in Monaco, Daniel Ricciardo said that things could turn "pretty special" here and that he was looking forward to maximizing his potential. He said:
“It’s definitely a track you can have the power in your hands to do so. It’s one that, if you’re at one with the car, and you have that confidence, it can turn into something pretty special around here. So yeah, looking forward to trying to exploit all my potential.”
The McLaren driver currently has 11 points and stands in 12th place in the 2022 Driver Standings ahead of the Monaco GP.
We understand what went wrong in Barcelona: Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo had a rather strange outing in Spain. The Australian qualified inside the top ten, but come race day, he had no grip whatsoever and found himself dropping down the order and outside of the points.
When questioned by the media if the team had been able to figure out what had happened, he replied in the affirmative and said:
“Yeah, we do. Yes, we understood, let’s say, some issues we faced over the course of the race. And yeah, looking forward to getting out on track here, it’s completely different. And, I was just speaking to Kevin [Magnussen], it’s been a while since he was here and I was kind of judging his excitement. And obviously we were here last year, but it’s always a track you get pumped up for.”
Daniel Ricciardo will be under pressure to turn things around this weekend. Especially with McLaren team principal Zak Brown admitting that the driver's performances at McLaren have not met the expectations of either the team or Ricciardo himself.
The Australian has a contract with McLaren until the end of 2023, but if his performances do not improve, he might have to start looking at the other teams on the grid.
Catch Daniel Ricciardo at the Monaco GP on May 29, 2022.
