Ricciardo said there was “nothing dramatic” about the issues that limited the team’s running during testing and at one point forced them to change engines.
“I think, looking at the last few years, at least while I have been with the team, winter testing has never been flawless for us,” Ricciardo said. “I think this year was probably the best one up until my time with the team.
“We know things can turnaround. The 2014 race here was pretty – forget the result, even the reliability was pretty impressive considering what we had done in testing.
“It is not a concern for me. Throughout the season maybe things will happen, you have to be prepared for that, but we are coming here pretty confident – I would say that.”
“We know things can turnaround. The 2014 race here was pretty – forget the result, even the reliability was pretty impressive considering what we had done in testing.
“It is not a concern for me. Throughout the season maybe things will happen, you have to be prepared for that, but we are coming here pretty confident – I would say that.”
Ricciardo echoes comments made by Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost after the team’s difficult first week of testing. Tost is confident the French manufacturer will fix the problems that disrupted their testing programme.
Reliability aside, the Renault engine still seems to be some way behind the Mercedes and Ferrari machines, but Ricciardo is still confident going into his home race.
“From testing, [the gap to Mercedes] looked like less than half a second,” he said. “I am not sure how much less. But less than half a second.
“I think our speed traps looked pretty good in Barcelona. We know we will not be as quick in a straight line but we are closer than where we were last year. We will see when everyone has it turned up this weekend.”
“I think our speed traps looked pretty good in Barcelona. We know we will not be as quick in a straight line but we are closer than where we were last year. We will see when everyone has it turned up this weekend.”
Teammate Max Verstappen doesn’t share Ricciardo’s confidence, having already said he doesn’t think the team is capable of winning this early in the season.
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