McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo has revealed that he is looking to ‘put all pieces together’ this weekend in Baku as McLaren look ahead to 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Ricciardo endured a frustrating Monaco Grand Prix just over a week ago (23 May) as he finished a lap down on race winner Max Verstappen in 12th position.
Explaining that he has used the past week to ‘reset and refocus’ ahead of Baku, Ricciardo commented: “The team and I have been working hard in the sim to understand, analyse and pinpoint the key areas we need to improve.”
The ex Red Bull driver also iterated his belief in the car’s performance but described the task of finding performance as like a puzzle, saying: “We know the car has good potential, we just need to put all pieces together to unlock it.”
Ricciardo though felt that he is still ‘adapting to a new car’ with a need to spend ‘more time and mileage’ driving the MCL35M, but has vowed not to give up, adding: “I’m going to keep working at it, build on the progress we made in Portugal and Spain and try to feel as one with the car.”
Looking ahead to Baku, Ricciardo admitted that he feels that the circuit is ‘really cool’ and hopes that this is ‘one of those races where potentially anything could happen.’
Ricciardo’s teammate, Lando Norris meanwhile is looking to retain his ‘positive momentum’ after finishing third in Monaco, as he looks forward to ‘an exciting challenge’ in trying to master Baku and senses ‘that there will be opportunities,’ throughout the weekend which he hopes to take if fall his way.
Norris meanwhile is wary that McLaren have tough competition from Ferrari and feels that there will be ‘little room for error’, especially around street circuits with the main aim being to find ‘consistency throughout the weekend’ in order to bag more points in the constructor fight.
Team Principal, Andreas Seidl echoed Norris’ thoughts in that McLaren need to “… remain focused and look to keep consolidating our performances one race weekend at a time.”
Seidl also noted the contrast in characteristics between Monaco and Baku which makes finding an ‘optimal balance’ key to extracting maximum performance from the car.
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