Daniel Ricciardo has set his sights on making life difficult for both Mercedes drivers and Max Verstappen at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
After showing strong pace throughout the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Ricciardo secured his best qualifying result of the year by ending Q3 as the fourth fastest driver.
He’ll start the race on the second row of the grid alongside former Red Bull teammate Verstappen.
Renault has put its focus into straight-line speed this weekend at Spa, which saw Ricciardo go faster than the top three in sector one and purple overall in sector three in Q3.
The advantage in those sectors has left Ricciardo aiming to get ahead of his rivals and into the top three during the opening laps of Sunday’s race.
“It’ll take something extra to hang with them tomorrow for the whole duration,” Ricciardo said.
“But we do have a strong first and third sector, so if we could get ahead maybe it is a track that we could defend on.
”They are very strong in the second sector but it is tricky to overtake in the second sector, so I will certainly try to make life difficult for him and the Mercedes guys if that was somehow in reach.”
Ricciardo says the car appears to drive better when running a low-downforce set-up, despite it theoretically meaning there is less rear stability and grip through corners.
“Typically it should feel worse as far as having less downforce in the car should slide more and be a bit more uncomfortable,” Ricciardo said.
”It does not always feel that way. It feels at times better balanced. So I’m not saying that there is more grip available, but the two front tires and the two rear tires, I feel like they are working together better when we put a smaller wing on.
“It seems a characteristic of the car for now.”
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