This is how McLaren is preparing Ricciardo: 'We will give him a lot of homework'

In an interview with Autosport.com, McLaren racing director Andrea Stella explains how his team is preparing Ricciardo for the start of the racing season in March and makes concrete what the goals are for the kick-off in Bahrain. Stella: "Having a new driver on board is always a very interesting challenge. And the approach is that it has to start from qualifying [at the first race]. Where do we want to be on that Saturday? The objective is to be at the first race, in qualifying, and it be like Daniel has driven the McLaren and has worked with these engineers, and the team, for a long time."

Homework

"We will, for example, give him quite a lot of homework", Stella confessed. The team wants to quickly familiarise the Australian with the way of communication within McLaren and therefore gives him team radio snippets to take home to study. "We will say, 'Daniel, now listen to that, and come back to us and tell us what you hear. What you would improve, what you liked, what you didn't like, how you want to be spoken to and so on?'”, Stella poses.

The simulator is also a key part of the preparations, Stella argues: "And then there is the simulator. The simulator is a good way to see how a driver is driving. It is not the same, obviously as being in a real car, but it helps a lot in getting all the changes that the drivers have to do right now, in a very natural way. So from this point of view, it is actually very useful."