Visa Cash App RB driver Daniel Ricciardo is seeking ‘help’ after becoming ‘frustrated’ with a regular problem over the opening eight rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
The 34-year-old has endured a largely disappointing start to the year with only five points to his name. Ricciardo also scored each of his points during the F1 Sprint at the Miami GP after finishing the 19-lap event in fourth place. He is yet to finish any Grand Prix higher than 12th.
Ricciardo matched his personal-best Grand Prix result so far this year from the Australian GP at last week’s Monaco GP. But while the Perth native came home in 12th, his teammate Yuki Tsunoda secured P8. The 24-year-old has even registered 19 of RB’s points so far this year.
RB driver Daniel Ricciardo admits his inconsistent qualifying is ‘frustrating’
Tsunoda is dominating the head-to-head battle in the Visa Cash App RB garage this season, too. He now leads Ricciardo 6-2 for Grand Prix results after taking P8 in Monte Carlo, where the Japanese talent even opened a 7-1 lead over the Australian regarding qualifying results.
His qualifying form is also ‘frustrating’ Ricciardo, having only started the Emilia Romagna GP inside the top 10, along with the Sprint at the Miami GP. The three-time pole-sitter achieved P9 in qualifying at Imola but finished the race in P13. He secured P4 for the Sprint in Florida.
READ MORE: F1 2024 teammate head-to-head battles including race, Sprint and qualifying
Now, Ricciardo has admitted that the inconsistency of his qualifying results is proving to be a ‘frustrating’ trend. He will also work with RB to see how their VCARB-01 can ‘help’ to unlock more of his pace. The eight-time Grand Prix winner is desperate to contend for Q3 regularly.
Ricciardo outlined, via quotes by Speedcafe: “I don’t want to just be like, ‘Hey, tyres this and that’. I want to try and take a good look at myself and see what I’m missing.
“Then we’ll look at what the car can give me to help me out. Because I think the frustrating thing is I can do it, but it’s obviously not happening frequently enough.
“That’s where I’m kind of getting frustrated with myself, just trying to understand why it’s not consistently week-in, week-out being a Q3 contender.”
Daniel Ricciardo has an average qualifying position of P13.5 to Yuki Tsunoda’s P10.25
While Ricciardo has only reached Q3 once so far this season, the RB driver has bowed out in Q1 twice. He ended qualifying for the Australian GP and the Miami GP in only P18. Ricciardo has on average been 0.449 seconds shy from setting a top-10 lap time in his best segment.
In fact, across the first eight Grand Prix of 2024, Ricciardo has an average qualifying position of P13.5. Tsunoda has an average qualifying position of P10.25 and has got into Q3 six times. His P19 at the Chinese GP skews Tsunoda’s average qualifying, which is P9 without the race.
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