Daniel Ricciardo requires "special adaptation" to McLaren characteristics

McLaren

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Ricciardo requires "special adaptation" to McLaren characteristics

Ricciardo has struggled to optimise qualifying since his switch to McLaren

Sam Hall & Ewan Gale

Wednesday 25 August 2021 17:19

McLaren racing director Andrea Stella believes Daniel Ricciardo's early struggles at the team are down to some "special adaptation" required with the MCL35M.

Ricciardo has scored consistently throughout the season to sit ninth in the drivers' standings but difficulties in qualifying have left him overshadowed by team-mate Lando Norris.

F1 cars were altered this season to cut rear downforce for safety reasons but McLaren has withheld characteristics that differ from its competitors, according to Stella.

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"There has been a lot of work done last year to recover the loss of downforce and we are relatively happy with what we have been able to achieve in this respect," he said.

“The first step was recovering as much as possible from the loss caused by the change of technical regulations for the 2021 cars.

“Then what we realised pretty soon is that in doing so, even if we achieve a decent level of aerodynamic efficiency of the car, what we kept is some characteristics of our car which makes it relatively special to drive and which, in a way, we see even with the experience Daniel is going through.

“He came from the opposite end in terms of how you would like to drive a Formula 1 car. Our car requires some special adaptation let’s say."

McLaren trying to make car "more natural to drive"

Despite the success Norris has brought this season to sit third in the standings and the end of the current breed of F1 car at the close of the season, McLaren is hoping to dial out certain problematic tendencies.

"I think it is no secret that our car is good in high-speed corners for example, [it] may not be the best car when you have to roll speed in mid-corner for example," Stella explained.

“So while we are trying to adjust some of the characteristics to make it a little bit more natural to drive, at the same time what the most important thing is, is to deliver aerodynamic efficiency.

"So the focus has always been on improving aerodynamic efficiency, even if we couldn’t necessarily improve these aspects in terms of balance and in terms of exploitation of the car."