Ricciardo makes grim admission after Australia GP failure as F1 dream slips away

23 March 2024 , 09:54

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Daniel Ricciardo was deflated after a wretched qualifying in his homeland (Image: Getty Images)

Daniel Ricciardo was dejected after a track limits violation condemned him to 18th on the grid for his home race.

But more concerning was admission that he didn't leave anything on the table. And that was despite being notably slower than his RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in Saturday's Australian Grand Prix qualifying session.

He ran wide on the exit of turn four and that was enough to see his best effort scrubbed from the timesheets. If it had been allowed to stand, Ricciardo would have made it safely through to Q2 at least.

However, that time was still more than a tenth of a second slower than what team-mate Tsunoda managed. And he admitted after the session that he would not have been able to emulate what the Japanese racer did by making it through to Q3 and sticking his RB eighth on the grid.

The 34-year-old said: "Turn 4, I was fighting it and I remember taking more kerb, so I was wider than usual, but after Turn 5 I'd forgotten about it. So I did the lap and then eventually, when Pierre [Hamelin, Ricciardo's race engineer] told me [the lap was deleted], it took a while for it to sink in.

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"The lap itself, I was happy with from my side. I felt like I got everything out of it and then when I saw it still wasn't good enough compared to Yuki, that for me is... yeah, I'm still a bit puzzled, because I know what those laps normally mean.

"I crossed the line being like, 'Yeah, that was a good one'. But those ones are normally enough, more than enough, and it's still not. Then looking at the time he's doing in Q2 - I could tell you now I can't get seven more tenths out of it than what I got in Q1. I'm sure there's a bit of track evolution but, honestly, there's still some things we've got to look at because it's been definitely a struggle so far."

Ricciardo is "not fully convinced" that his car is working at its optimum. But, still, the fact he does not believe he can match the times being put in by his team-mate is cause for huge concern.

The Aussie is up against Tsunoda in his bid to earn a return to his old Red Bull seat. That is currently being occupied by Sergio Perez who came into the season under pressure, but has begun strongly.

The Mexican finished second in the first two races and qualified third on the road for the Melbourne event. He was knocked down to sixth after the session after picking up a penalty for impeding, but Perez's strong race pace will give him belief that he can convert that into another podium.

Daniel Moxon