Ricciardo details McLaren 'little victory' target

Ricciardo in Saudi Arabia — Photo: © LAT Images

McLaren

Ricciardo details McLaren 'little victory' target

Ricciardo heads back to his home event for the first time since 2019

Ewan Gale

Monday 4 April 2022 10:30 Updated: 11:48

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Daniel Ricciardo has conceded points would be "a little victory" for McLaren at the Australian Grand Prix after a difficult start to the season.

McLaren failed to score any points in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix but found an upturn in form for Jeddah which saw Lando Norris open the team's account by finishing seventh, while Ricciardo retired with a clutch problem.

Looking ahead to the return of his home event in Australia for the first time since 2019, Ricciardo addressed the restructuring at Albert Park and said: "It's going to be flowing and quite fast again, especially with the changes they made.

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"Perhaps that comes to us again and maybe we can fight for points. I know that's not aiming very high but that's really all we can aim for, for now.

"Until we get some big updates I think anything inside the top ten we'll take a little victory."

Ricciardo encouraged despite car failure

Ricciardo was bidding to add points to his own tally before his MCL36 retired at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Despite the issue, the Australian is positive about McLaren's prospects and he explained: "We had a failure so it's still not ideal but we were much more competitive.

"I think both of us, Lando and myself, were feeling that the car was certainly better. It doesn't feel bad, we'd just like that extra little bit of grip and downforce.

"In a way, that's encouraging as well because I think fundamentally we're not out, we've just got to find more chunks."