Daniel Ricciardo quipped that he “might go drown in my ice bath” as he was eliminated in Q1 at the Singapore Grand Prix amid rumours over his Formula 1 prospects.
Ricciardo came into this weekend with the microscope on his position in the sport as speculation emerged that this could even be his last outing with RB this season.
The Australian appeared destined to deliver a much-needed positive result, however, as he managed to put his car inside the top 10 in the opening two practice hours.
But a decline in the order to 17th place in FP3 preceded a nightmare qualifying, as Ricciardo exited in the opening stage as team-mate Yuki Tsunoda wound up eighth.
Ricciardo was at a loss to pinpoint the reasons behind his struggles to unlock the time that Tsunoda and the competition did on the Soft compound compared to him.
“It was probably more what happened today. I don’t know,” Ricciardo told media including Motorsport Week.
“We didn’t really change much. Obviously we were in a good place yesterday, so, yeah, we were pretty upbeat about it and, yeah, we weren’t chasing our tail.
“And then actually, honestly, the Medium this morning was good. I felt like we started off like, you know, on the same foot as yesterday, but then I put the Soft on and I was nowhere.
“So we did a bit of fine-tuning for quali and we thought we’d be okay. But, yeah, again, I didn’t feel, let’s say, comfortable on the Soft.
“I would say miserable because we were somewhere yesterday genuinely, and we didn’t expect.
“There wasn’t any big mistakes or anything, but I knew when I crossed the line, ‘I was like, that wasn’t quick’. Just didn’t feel that nice.
“But, yeah, this morning you could say, ‘oh, maybe that Soft didn’t work’. But we had three of them today and we were just not competitive on any of them.”
Ricciardo denies track conditions changed
Ricciardo has denied that the extensive shower that descended on the circuit overnight and washed away the rubber that had been laid down could have contributed.
“Yeah, honestly, it was similar,” he said regarding the track conditions. “That’s the thing. I see the track ramps up a little bit, but there’s nothing to say.
“That’s why I don’t really think we can say, oh, this is why we don’t have a pace today. Obviously, what Yuki did is what we all felt both cars could do, so yeah.
“Not sure. But the conditions seem similar. I mean, it rained a lot overnight, but the track still felt pretty good this morning, so not sure.”
Ricciardo has conceded his latest setback has been more taxing as he expected advancing through Q1 would not be an issue based on RB’s promising practice pace.
Asked whether the result was more galling amid the question marks over his F1 future, Ricciardo replied: “Yeah, of course.
“I believe a statement, but, yeah, obviously the Q1 thing is like, yeah, sucks. So I don’t know. Look, with all the s**t going on, I honestly felt OK.
“Like, I felt like it would be good today, so that’s why I’m more just like, ‘how did we end up [out] in Q1?’ So, yeah, I don’t know.”
Ricciardo hoping on a miracle to score points
The eight-time F1 race victor expressed that it will be tough to continue remaining upbeat heading into the race as he has an uphill task to reach the points from 16th.
“I try to be optimistic, but today was a very pessimistic day, so I might go drown in my ice bath,” he added. “You’ll find me there tomorrow, floating.”
Ricciardo highlighted Nelson Piquet Jr crashing on purpose in 2008 to help then Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso win as the sort of scenario he needs to recover.
“Hopefully a well-timed Safety Car. Bring Piquet back and let’s make it happen!” he concluded.
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