Daniel Ricciardo’s Saturday in Miami was the ultimate definition of a mixed bag.The Australian drove a superb Sprint to fend off Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri to claim a brilliant P4, his first points of the current campaign.
However, come Grand Prix qualifying, everything changed. A complete lack of rear grip on his final lap and going deep at turn 17 saw the Australian exit in Q1 with P18. Due to his grid penalty, he’ll start last later today.
The RBs found themselves in P14 and P15 as everyone started their final runs, with Tsunoda 0.071s quicker than Ricciardo.
A couple of minutes later, 6 places and 0.293s separated them as the Japanese driver advanced in 12th, before ultimately progressing to Q3.
Ricciardo discussed his qualifying afterwards. While he was disappointed at what happened, he felt it was something outside his control due to the tyres as Lando Norris experienced in SQ3 on Friday.
“Yeah, I mean, I am [disappointed].
“I feel like it was one of those ones that was just like, I don’t think we could have done anything in terms of […] I didn’t have the grip starting the lap.
“I genuinely felt like Lando and how he felt yesterday in Q3. I don’t know what he said afterwards, but I saw his lap and you could see he went pretty much a second slower on that soft.
“And you could see him sliding already from exit of turn one, and it was a mess. And yeah, that’s honestly how I felt.
“It didn’t feel like that second set of tyres gave me typically what it should with the new soft. So yeah, I felt like we were a little bit […] kind of handicapped.
“Obviously, we don’t have an answer why, but I’m not sure if Lando had an answer yesterday, but I genuinely felt his pain.”
Ricciardo confirmed there was no radical set-up changes made by the team as Parc Fermé opened up between the conclusion of the Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying.
On the second set of tyres, the 8-time Grand Prix winner went slower by 0.001 as the aforementioned moment at turn 17 cost him a probable Q2 slot. He had gone green in Sectors 1 and 2.
“I mean, obviously, that’s frustrating [after the high of the Sprint], but it’s not that we changed the car and did something different and we’re like, ‘damn, we shouldn’t have done that’.
“The first set was fine. I think there was obviously, as always, some time to find, and I felt like it was definitely quite easy to find on that second set, let’s just say, with a new set of tyres, track evo and a bit less fuel.
“So yeah, the lap times there in the car, I simply just don’t really know what happened with that set of tyres.
“It’s kind of a shitty thing to say because there is no facts behind it, but you feel like when it doesn’t give you what you want.
“Yeah, that’s where the frustration lies.”
In SQ3 on Friday, Lando Norris struggled with tyre overheating due as his MCL38 turned into a rally car on softs as he paced the field on mediums in SQ1 and SQ2.
Asked if he thinks he did something similar by going too aggressive on the out lap, Ricciardo said his engineer Pierre Hamelin was happy with the tyre temperatures at the start of his push lap and further checks will be required as to why they struggled.
“So, I mean, we’ll have to have a look. Like, there was nothing drastic that I did different. So yeah, it was unexpected to kind of have those challenges then.
“But yeah, it’s hard because you’ve got this minimum time that you have to do.
“But as you say, on a track that’s so hot with these tyres, you can’t go slow enough, you know what I mean? So obviously it’s the same for everyone.
“But yeah, I don’t think it was anything obvious that stood out from the prep lap.
“And even my engineer said […] I saw him on the pit wall before I came to Parc Fermé, and he said temperatures look fine. So he was as confused as I was. So we’ll obviously have a bit more of a look into it.
“Doesn’t change it obviously. Second row today and last row tomorrow.
“I don’t know why, I’m obviously angry about it, but I think because I know it’s not something like — I don’t think it’s something we could have done.
“I think it’s like […] It was just an unfortunate session.”
