Under the street-lights of Singapore, Formula One held it’s Qualifying session for the race on Sunday, and despite what seemed to be a promising Friday Daniel Ricciardo’s failed to make it past Q1. The Australian driver only qualified P16.
When asked to explain what exactly went wrong in the session, the VCARB driver had no answers. He stated that they did not significantly alter the car much, but nothing seemed to have clicked in place.
“It was probably more what happened today. I don’t know. We didn’t really change much.
“Obviously we were in a good place yesterday, so yeah, we were pretty upbeat about it. We weren’t chasing our tail. And then actually, honestly the medium this morning was good.
“I felt like we started off 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 just didn’t feel, let’s say, comfortable on the soft.”
Ricciardo further explained that even if the Medium tyres felt fine, but the car performance never unlocked with any set of Softs.
“It was, I would say miserable because we were somewhere yesterday, genuinely, and we didn’t expect, you know, there wasn’t like any big mistakes or anything, but I knew when I crossed the line, I was like, that wasn’t quick. Just tell if it’s just, just didn’t feel that nice.
“But yeah, this morning you could say, oh, maybe that just soft didn’t work, but we had three of them today and we were just not competitive on any of them.”
A number of drivers, including the likes of George Russell in Azerbaijan, have complained about the narrow operational window of the Pirelli tyres. When asked whether this could be an issue why the Australian driver struggled in qualifying on Saturday, Ricciardo claimed that the tyres seemed to be more affected in hotter climates.
“It’s definitely like, I think that they’re definitely a bit more fragile in the hotter climates. You know, I remember Miami was a similar story for a few of us.
“We were a bit puzzled. So yeah, it’s, I would say, look, if FP3 was qualifying, then I would have said something more like that soft was shit soft because it didn’t bite. It didn’t, you know, lock in kind of thing.
“But the fact that I struggled on all three today, all three softs that I used, maybe there’s something else, but you don’t, you don’t really get a read. Pierre asked me after the run, he goes, you know, could you tell in the out lap that it was maybe not ready for turn one or anything? I said, no, like, so yeah. Try and figure it out.“
The VCARB driver further lamented his Q1 exit, adding that he would not expected this situation even with a lap that was not up to the mark.
“But yeah, Q1 sucks. That’s especially when you don’t expect to be there. Obviously some races we’ve expected to be here, but yeah, after yesterday didn’t think this would even be possible with a shit lap.“
This Q1 exit comes off the back of a Media day wherein there were a number of rumours swirling around the future of the Australian driver.
To this, Ricciardo said, “It would be nice just to, yeah. I’ll leave a statement, but yeah, obviously the Q1 thing is like, yeah, it sucks.
“I don’t know. With all the shit going on, I honestly felt okay. Like I felt like it would be, would be good today.
“So that’s why I’m more just like, how did, how did we end up in Q1? So yeah, I don’t know.”
When asked about whether going into this race felt similar as he did in Hungary, the race before the summer break, in terms of the future of his career,Ricciardo stated that in Hungary they at least had hope.
“I think there was still some optimism in Hungary.
“And after Q3 you feel a bit better. I don’t know. Like looking ahead to tomorrow now, I just, it’s such a different circuit.
“Yeah. I try, I try to be optimistic, but today was a very pessimistic day.”
Ricciardo further goes to explain that even the conditions were similar, so the sudden drop in performance does not make any sense.
“Yeah, obviously it was similar. That’s the thing.
“The track ramps up a little bit, but there’s nothing to say that that’s why, you know, I don’t really think we can say, Oh, this is why we don’t have the pace today. Obviously what Yuki did is what we all felt both cars can do. So, um, yeah, I’m not sure, but the conditions seem similar.
“I mean, it rained a lot overnight, but the track still felt pretty good this morning. So I’m not sure.”
When asked what he thinks he can do on the race Sunday, realistically speaking, the Australian driver joked about bringing Piquet Jr back, referencing the infamous 2008 crashgate scandal, which lead to a victory for Fernando Alonso on the same track.
“Hopefully a well-timed safety car, bring Piquet back and let’s, uh, let’s make it happen.”
