Daniel Ricciardo says he is “more confused than frustrated” amid his weekend-long struggles at Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Ricciardo, a two-time pole sitter and 2018 winner at the event, has trailed Lando Norris throughout the weekend at the Circuit de Monaco.
Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2, finishing over half a second behind Norris, who went on to qualify fifth on the grid, with a time almost a second up on the Australian’s best.
“It is more confusing than frustrating at the moment, that is the emotion,” he said.
“There were some laps, this year, there were laps where I said that lap was a bit messy and I understand why.
“I was a second off the whole weekend. A second is an eternity. I do not have an answer for that. I could explain a couple of tenths. I don’t feel like I have forgotten how to drive this track. There are a few things we need to figure out.
“Even in Q1 across the line feeling like I did a good lap. And I was 1.2 slower than Lando. You know when you’re one second off and I did not feel like that.
“I do not want to say there are excuses but there is definitely something that we have to dig deeper to find out.”
Ricciardo stressed he does “not want to point the finger at the [McLaren] guys and say something is wrong” but expressed his concern at the situation.
“It is a long way off the pace so we would just try and understand it,” he said.
“And for sure that is what we will do, and even if I was two tenths off the pace I was still trying to figure out where those two tenths are, but there is a big chunk to try and find.”
Discussion about this post