Daniel Ricciardo backs Renault upgrade despite frustrating French GP Friday

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo backs Renault upgrade despite frustrating Friday

He was outside the top 10.

Matthew Scott

Saturday 22 June 2019 09:39

Daniel Ricciardo remains confident that Renault's upgrades will pay dividends at the French Grand Prix, despite placing outside the top 10 at the end of Friday practice at Paul Ricard. Ricciardo has both a new engine and new aero parts in his new team's home race.

Ricciardo set his fastest time of FP2 on the hard tyre, seemingly unable to make the quickest compound work to its full potential when he ran qualifying simulations.

And the Australian believes there is plenty left in the tank for Saturday's qualifying in Le Castellet.

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"It doesn't really show in the overall position now but I went quicker on a hard than a soft so I think we just missed something with the tyre more than the car," he told Sky Sports.

"With the hard it was working pretty well, still not working as well as the McLarens, I don't know what they found but they seems strong – they're kind of the benchmark in our pack now.

"But I'm still not worried about our position. I think we're better than that and hopefully can show a bit more tomorrow.

"Obviously we try and do things to improve it, but if we put parts on the car and it doesn't look better then we're not going to keep them on.

"We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're making progress, but we'll keep chipping away because, as good as Canada was, it's still not ultimately where we want to be.

"I think, Q3 is definitely where we should be [in France], I think we can be there. We weren't there today, if P2 was qualifying.

"But I think there's definitely some lap time on the table."