Daniel Ricciardo admits he would be "disappointed" to end 2020 without silverware

Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo admits he would be "disappointed" to end 2020 without silverware

Ricciardo would be happy with sixth if he races at his "hardest"

Ewan Gale

Thursday 13 August 2020 17:44 Updated: 18:32

Renault's Daniel Ricciardo has admitted he would be "disappointed" if he does not score a podium in 2020 but would not be "devastated" if he "raced his hardest" and finished sixth.

The Australian just missed out on third at the British Grand Prix, before a spin at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix dropped him out of the points altogether at the second Silverstone race.

Whilst Ricciardo says he would be disgruntled to not score a podium finish this season, he would not be so disappointed if he can extract the maximum from his Renault.

“It's more if the opportunity presents itself and we miss out on that," Ricciardo said.

"For sure I'd be disappointed, but if I race every race my hardest and I'm finishing sixth every race because of that, then I'm probably not going to be devastated.

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“I do want to stand back up there and be delivered a trophy on a robot or whatever they're doing now. I miss that. And I'll probably get a fine for drinking out of my shoe, but it will be worth it.”

Ricciardo and Renault persevered through a difficult first season together in 2019 which brought just 54 points as he finished ninth in the standings.

The seven-time grand prix winner does feel this year's RS20 is a "considerably better" car to drive, conceding the current points haul of 20 points doesn't reflect the car's performance.

“I feel it should be even more [points than 20],” he continued.

“I think the car certainly has made a big step forward and it goes back to the first practice in Austria, after such a long break, jumped in the car and it just felt easy, and it was nice to drive and it was just there, really, from the get-go. It’s been strong and I think 20 points is great but there's more in that so it's considerably better.

“I think we've proved we're a Q3 car, maybe a top-five could be a stretch. I think the only way we kind of miss out on Q3 is if we make a mistake on our lap perhaps.

"I think typically if everything's running smooth, then we should be there. We'll see what happens here but I'm excited to get some more good qualifyings and then convert them to a good race.”

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