Ricciardo excuse emerges after Australian Grand Prix nightmare

One of the harshest critics in Formula 1 has shared a surprise verdict about Daniel Ricciardo after the Aussie’s home Grand Prix nightmare.

Daniel Ricciardo. Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images.

Daniel Ricciardo has been given an excuse for his Australian Grand Prix misery with Red Bull chief adviser Helmut Marko sharing a surprise verdict on the veteran driver’s performance.

Ricciardo’s weekend was ruined when he was eliminated in the opening qualifying session after his best lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits.

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It didn’t improve from there. Starting P18 on the grid, Ricciardo climbed up to finish 12th in a race where just 16 cars reached the finish line.

The Australian’s struggles looked particularly bad as Visa CashApp RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda pushed his car to finish P8.

The Japanese driver is now 3-0 in head-to-head races with Ricciardo this year and is also 3-0 in qualifying results.

Daniel Ricciardo was lonely at Albert Park.

Typically ruthless with his driver performance assessments, most would have expected Marko to cut Ricciardo to pieces when speaking after the race — however, the Austrian suggested Ricciardo’s poor result was also caused by his team failing to provide him with the car he needs.

Marko told Sky Germany Ricciardo needs a “safe and confident” car.

“He’s struggling, we’ll have to see,” Marko said.

“There were some good signs in the Bahrain test, but the last few races haven’t been going too well.

“I think Ricciardo needs a safe and confident car. I hope the team can give him that so he can at least be on par with Yuki.”

Speaking to Austria’s ServusTV, Marko praised Tsunoda’s qualifying and race pace.

“Yuki ran perfectly from the first lap on Friday and set very consistent and good times in today’s race,” Marko said.

“When [Haas’ Nico] Hulkenberg attacked, he immediately countered. I think we have confirmed that Yuki is an absolutely mature driver.”

There have been widespread calls for the Ricciardo to be axed by the Red Bull development outfit with Liam Lawson still demanding a promotion to a full time drive with the team.

However, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was much more positive about Ricciardo’s performances.

Daniel Ricciardo leads Zhou Guanyu of China. Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images.

“Obviously he had a tough weekend. It looked like he had pretty similar pace to Yuki in the race.

“Obviously he had a tough day yesterday getting that lap disallowed, so just wanted to give him a bit of encouragement.”

Asked if Ricciardo is in need of encouragement, Horner said: “He’s a big boy, he’ll pick himself up.

“F1 for a driver can be lonely so a bit of encouragement is never a bad thing.”

As reported by foxsports.com.au, Horner stopped to speak to Ricciardo on the grid before the race.

Ricciardo also spoke about spotting some positive signs when speaking to reporters after the race.

“I felt like the frustration I’d kind of put aside for today,” Ricciardo said after the race. “I kind of knew what’s done is done and tried to make the most of today.

“It’s nice there were moments in the race where I did have pace and I was able to show, ‘okay, I can still get some good stints in there’. It was still good to get the laps.”

He went on to say: “I definitely believe I can do it,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there’s any panic. I would’ve loved this season to have started better, but we’ll just keep digging.

“It’s not that we’ve changed everything and all of a sudden this car suits Yuki (Tsunoda) and doesn’t suit me. I certainly don’t feel it’s anything like that.

“I think we will find something. I thought it would’ve been this weekend. Maybe it’s next, and if it’s not the next, then we’ll keep going until it happens.

“It will happen.”

Originally published as Ricciardo excuse emerges after Australian Grand Prix nightmare