Ricciardo hoping to drive "as free as a bird" with McLaren changes

Daniel Ricciardo is hopeful the new McLaren MCL26 will allow him to drive "as free as a bird".

The Australian struggled at times in his first year with the Woking-based outfit as Lando Norris outshone his more experienced team-mate in the MCL35M.

F1 has introduced a new set of regulations that has wiped the slate clean for teams, with car design completely overhauled in the quest to enable closer, more exciting racing.

McLaren launched its new car during a function at the McLaren Technology Centre, becoming the fourth team to unveil its new look ahead of testing later this month.

With aerodynamics and tyres the biggest changes, handing characteristics should be vastly different to the previous breed of machinery and asked if he thought such changes could help McLaren's new challenger suit his driving style better, Ricciardo replied: "I hope so. I think there is a lot of unknowns now.

"I think with change definitely comes some optimism where maybe this should get me to lean on my strengths more or whatever.

"I have done a few laps on the sim, I have done a few sessions, more than a few and I think so far it has been going pretty good, so I am pretty happy with where I am at with the car at the moment but how that correlates to on track we have to see.

"I am excited for the new cars. It is going to be different to me as well, I mean a lot of the comparisons are to an F2 car but I never raced F2 so there are going to be a few unknowns for me as well but I am prepared and excited and hopefully, you will see me driving as free as a bird in 2022."

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