A U-turn for Ricciardo? Why the Australian is performing better in Canada

We are now one-third of the way through the 2024 season. As of now, Ricciardo sits 14th in the Drivers standings, whilst his teammate Yuki Tsunoda sits 10th. It was announced on Saturday that Tsunoda had extended his contract for another year with Visa Cash App RB, whilst Ricciardo's seat for next season still remains uncertain. The start to the weekend has been strong for the Australian, who out-performed his teammate in all three free practice sessions and on Saturday, qualified higher, meaning he will start 5th for Sunday's Grand Prix, with Tsnuoda in 8th. This is certainly a contrast to the other races this season where Tsunoda has consistently performed higher, making it into the points, unlike Ricciardo. 

Speaking to GPblog and others in the paddock, Ricciardo explained what has helped him improve his performance for this weekend, creating such a large change. "I would say, two parts. Firstly, the car, from when we put it down yesterday on track, FP1, not so much. FP2, more laps got done. I just had confidence in it. The car felt good. I was able to kind of slide it and drive a little bit more aggressively, so that just felt like I was getting on top of it," he said.

"Part two is, we're always going to be trying to perfect the car. But I also have to look at myself and make sure that I'm in a good place to be able to do results like this. It's obviously been a bit harder for me to find that sweet spot this year. I look back at 10 years ago, it's kind of effortless but I think it's just after Monaco, I tried to just understand, I was always looking at the on track stuff. I can brake later here or do this and that, but it was like, okay,, what's maybe some other things that are affecting my performances? Is there, am I coming into a race weekend, not feeling energised or not feeling this or that? " 

'Some good self-therapy'

Ricciardo has had a troubled past few years in F1. After leaving Red Bull he moved to Renault, and then to McLaren where he greatly struggled. The team terminated his contract a year early which left him without a seat for 2023. Christian Horner brought the Australian back to Ricciardo as a third driver, before he made the move to the then AlphaTauri to replace Nyck de Vries. Not long into his return, he was replaced by Liam Lawson temporarily after an injury. Although his dream of returning to that second Red Bull seat is no longer a possibility, he must prove himself to retain his seat at VCRAB. This weekend, Ricciardo has also faced criticism over his performance from former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who questioned why Ricciardo was still in the sport, stating "if you can't cut it, go home". Nevertheless, it seems the Australian driver is aware of his performances over the season, hence he explained the actions he has taken to improve after Monaco. 

"I just had some good self therapy after Monaco and just sat back and had a look at maybe the things I'm doing wrong away from the track or maybe giving too much of my time to people. By the time I get to race day or something, I'm a little bit more flat because I know it's in me." He added, "We're always going to be trying to fine tune the car, but deep down, I know what I can do and it's just making sure that I'm in this spot to be able to do it more often. I'm trying to take as much accountability as possible and just think a little bit broader."

'Ready to go'

So what does this self-therapy entail? Ricciardo explained: "I got everyone around me, the team, engineers, my inner circle as well, just like guys, like open book, constructive criticism, give it to me. What do you think I can clean up? Where do you feel I'm maybe missing something? A lot of it was kind of just probably management, like energy management over the course of the weekend. So it's not even what I'm doing in the car. It's just what gets me into the car feeling like I'm f*cking ready to go. So it was just trying to clean up some of those things and if there was anything on my mind try to just get it off my chest and I just got into this weekend feeling just certainly a bit lighter and just hungry and happy and ready to say, f*** you." 

"I stayed back for a little bit [after Monaco] and it was just because I feel like under the hood and that everyone's very good, like we're pretty open with each other, but I wanted to make sure that there was nothing that they saw that they needed to unload. I just basically wanted to know what do you guys think is going wrong? Tell me, if there's something you see from me, I want to try and fix it. But I'll also tell you guys what I feel and maybe why I do feel a little bit flat or maybe the schedule's a bit, bit too much at the moment or whatever."

He concluded: "We just had a very open chat and it was great because I also want to give them the comfort to tell me straight, I'm nearly 35. I don't need too many more pats on the back. I'd rather people just be very direct with me. I felt like it was just productive and that continued through the week after." So far, it seems that the changes the VCARB driver has made have worked. The Australian will be hoping to keep up his strong performance during Sunday's Grand Prix, and secure some points for both himself and the team.