How Ricciardo got back into a positive flow with changes

Although the sun was shining on Thursday at Silverstone, Ricciardo dressed warmly. The cold wind is still just a little too much for the Australian. Once he arrives with his electric scooter in the Red Bull hospitality, it becomes clear how popular he is within the team. People from Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App RB all have a quick chat with Ricciardo, before making our way upstairs for the interview.

The smile is also there on Ricciardo's face again. That has been a little different this season. After races in Bahrain, Imola and Monaco, Ricciardo was not always a happy one, but in the last three races he found his way up. In two of the last three weekends, Ricciardo beat his teammate in qualifying and the race.

It looks like you are happier. You look happier than at the start of the season?

"Yes. We are in the business of results. The better the results, the happier you can feel you can be. The last few weeks has been better for sure. Just trying to get some momentum. I feel like this could be a nice little turning point for the year. I have good energy and stuff now but you're only as good as your last race so you can't be too excited but just keep some excitement."

Do those achievements still have such a big impact on how you feel, even after so many years of experience and having already achieved so much?

"The highs and lows affects me, I’ve got better to deal with them. I still try not to let it interfere with everything I do outside of the track, but I don't know I'm still quite hard on myself. After Montreal, I took a few days off and I had a small vacation and I felt a lot better about taking the vacation because I had a good race. I earned two or three days off. If I had a shit race then I probably would have felt some guilt so it can still have a little bit of an effect."

This was again the first full season you started with a full preparation in the winter. How do you assess the first half of the season?

"Maybe preparation is not good for me [laughs]. Let's see. If we get to Spa and the positive results continues then I will actually say I'm quite happy with the start of the season. But of course, the first six, seven races I definitely envisioned more from myself. It's what we're in. It's always going to be a fight. Now with the regulations quite stable, all the drivers quite comfortable with the cars, nothing's going to be easy. I knew getting back into the sport that the pressure is back, there is emphasis, there is a spotlight. You're not signing up for an easy job again, but it's what I love doing so it's okay."

Why did that performance improve, since during the last qualifyings and races, you were better than Yuki?

"I tried to change my routine a little bit coming into the race weekends. The first few races, I felt good on the race weekend, I was confident and motivated  but I still wasn't getting the results. I kept doing the same thing and the result didn't really change so I was quite confused because I felt like on the race weekend I was good and I was happy and motivated so then I thought okay maybe something before the race weekend needs to change. Maybe I need to do something a bit different with my preparation so when I arrive at the race I feel a little bit different again."

"For example, my trainer (Pyry Salmela), I’m using him more. Using him full-time where when I joined it was a little bit more part-time and we built up a good relationship. I’m having a bit more structure, a bit more discipline and these are some things I change which I think is helping me get to the race feeling a bit more like ready to go."

When you joined Visa Cash App RB, it was actually a conscious decision to do your own training and not work with your regular trainer. You have now reversed that, haven't you?

"I think for a period of time it was good for me and also a little bit of maybe my stubbornness. I wanted to prove that I could come back and do things my way. I think it worked last year. It's easy sometimes to think that yeah even six months ago something worked so it's still gonna work, maybe it's not bad but maybe it's not like perfected or it's not the best. I got to a point where okay the results aren't as good as I thought, I need to be open-minded here and try to change something."

In the extended conversation with Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian also talked about what makes the Red Bull family so special and why, precisely, he loves the harsh words of Helmut Marko and Christian Horner. You can read that story on GPblog.com soon!