Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris have suffered much more than expected in the first two grands prix of the 2022 Formula 1 season. McLaren has not had the pace to follow the teams above and only the British driver managed to score points in Arabia Saudi.
Ricciardo failed to crack the top ten in Bahrain and retired due to mechanical problems in Jeddah, but said his team-mate’s result in the last race encourages him to fight for a good result at his home race in Melbourne this weekend. week, where he will try to add his first points of the course.
After its absence in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 , the Australian Grand Prix will return to the F1 calendar in 2022 and Ricciardo is confident he will give his fans a good reason to celebrate: “The changes seem like they make a much faster circuit. Hopefully that will help us and maybe we can fight for the points here.”
“I know that’s not much, but getting into the points is really the only thing we’re going for at the moment. Until we can get updates, finishing in the top ten might seem like a small victory to us,” said the Australian driver.
It is expected that after the changes made in Albert Park, especially the elimination of the chicane in the second sector, the track will be much faster, reducing the lap times of the last few years in which the race was held by up to 5 seconds. Australian GP.
Formula 1 is also hoping that the revamped Melbourne circuit will give drivers many more opportunities to overtake and, following McLaren’s step forward in Saudi Arabia, Ricciardo is confident of making another significant progress this coming weekend.
“I think Saudi Arabia was more due to the characteristics of the circuit, so I hope and trust that Bahrain was something unique. In Bahrain we also had problems with the brakes, but since then they seem to have been resolved. I think Jeddah It was a track that suited us better and I expect the same in Australia,” concluded the Australian McLaren driver .
