Daniel Ricciardo awaiting evening delight to become "at one" with McLaren

McLaren

Ricciardo awaiting evening delight to become "at one" with McLaren

Ricciardo has only run in the hotter, dustier conditions so far

Ian Parkes

Saturday 13 March 2021 18:04

Daniel Ricciardo believes driving in the evening session on the final day of the pre-season test will finally help him become "at one" with the new McLaren.

The MCL35M has so far looked a class act across the two days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, with its novel diffuser design capturing attention.

Taking to the track in both pre-lunch sessions, Ricciardo has topped the timesheet, but has yet to sample what he considers to be the more representative post-lunch environment, particularly late on when the dusk-to-night conditions are cooler as experienced by team-mate Lando Norris.

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Ricciardo will get his one-and-only chance to savour such circumstances on the final day on Sunday.

"It's all gone pretty smooth," said Ricciardo on his running so far. "I don't know what could have gone better yet - faster lap times.

"But generally it has gone pretty well. I think we have done most runs that we planned.

"I do the evening session tomorrow and that will complete the picture. That's going to be racier, so that will give me a better understanding of where the limit of the car is in more optimum conditions.

"You never want to say you are not driving to the limit yet but I think the reality is it does take a little time to execute at 100 per cent.

"I think I'm certainly getting close, but am I truly at one with the car yet? Not yet. But I expect a fair bit out of myself in the evening session tomorrow, and I expect to start getting closer to that."

Asked as to whether the car was as good on the inside as it looks from the outside, Ricciardo replied: "It's certainly handling itself pretty well at the moment.

"I need to get one of these evening sessions under my belt because even though we have been quick on the timesheet in the day sessions, the track is 40 degrees.

"It's not that representative of what I'm used to around here, the car is sliding and moving around. It doesn't feel electrifying but relative to the track, we're obviously doing okay.

"In 24 hours' time, I'll have a better understanding of how well balanced it is. Both days, with 180-degree wind direction change, we've been pretty solid so there's certainly more positives than not at the moment."