Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian driver for RB Formula 1, expressed his disappointment after failing to advance to Q3 in the qualifying round of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Ricciardo will start the race from 14th on the grid, while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda secured a ninth-place start, marking the team’s first top-10 position. Ricciardo acknowledged Tsunoda’s strong performance but emphasized that the gap between them was not significant. He plans to analyze the qualifying session to understand the reasons behind their struggles.
Ricciardo faced a significant disadvantage towards the end of the first section of the track. He pushed hard into Turn 8, but this compromised his speed through the following esses. Despite achieving his best time in the second section, Ricciardo was frustrated that he couldn’t secure a spot in the top ten shootout with his VCARB-01. Last week, he was frustrated with himself because he knew he could have done better. However, this time, the situation is more mysterious. While there were a few corners where he struggled, he felt that he couldn’t extract any more performance from the car. It wasn’t a matter of understeer or oversteer, but rather a lack of grip compared to the other drivers. He knows where he lost time, but he is unsure of how to improve in that session.
Ricciardo hopes that his performances in 2024 will earn him a spot in the main Red Bull team. He couldn’t find an explanation for his elimination in Q2 and is hopeful that post-qualifying inspections will reveal any damage to his car. He believes that they didn’t do anything drastically different compared to Q1. Usually, lap times improve naturally with track evolution, but this time it didn’t happen. He speculates that perhaps hitting curbs caused some damage to the car. He remains optimistic that they might discover something like that, but it’s too early to think positively about the upcoming race.