The Spanish Grand Prix press conference was not so kind to Daniel Ricciardo as he got a major reality check from Lewis Hamilton.
Just before Friday’s practice sessions, Hamilton, with the help of just eight words brought Ricciardo to the ground after suggesting that he has a car worthy of winning a Grand Prix.
Ricciardo has had an average start with McLaren managing to score points in all three races this season. However, he had to agree that his teammate Lando Norris is a more premier driver at the moment as compared to him.
After the race in Portugal, the 31-year-old said that he is still getting used to his car after joining McLaren from Renault.
Norris is currently third in the driver championship after a podium finish in Italy and fourth in Bahrain and Portugal.
This is exactly why Hamilton suggested that the car is capable of winning a Grand Prix.
The situation presented itself after Hamilton claimed that he is not happy with his team winning only two out of the three races till now.
By the time Hamilton finished his answer, Ricciardo joked that he would not mind getting two wins.
“I’ll take a couple wins,” he said with a laugh.
Hamilton responded: “Well you’ve got a good car man, so…”
The Aussie was left red-faced as he replied, “I know, I’ve got to pull my finger out”.
Just earlier, Hamilton had said that he is less than happy with his team’s performance.
“We really can’t afford to keep relying on mistakes from the others,” he said.
“So we’re just keeping our heads down and keep working away. We’ve got a good package and it does have its weak areas. And that’s what we’re working on.
“In terms of my side, I’m really happy with the output so far. Naturally you’re always trying to raise the bar and that’s something that’s very difficult to do and to make as few mistakes as possible, but they’ve been there and I’m grateful for them because it just makes you stronger when you learn from those experiences.
“So what’s crazy to think is there’s still 20 more to go. It’s a long season, huh.”
McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl is currently more than happy to give Ricciardo time to get used to the car.
“It’s something which just doesn’t allow him to continuously push the car at the limit, because for him in certain dynamic conditions it’s like driving on a knife’s edge,” the boss said.
“But that’s definitely something where I think we made already steps for this weekend, together with him, despite the disappointment in qualifying.
“And we simply have to keep working together with him in order to improve this situation.
“As always, there’s the driver’s side, but obviously we also look deeply on the team side into this, and see how we can help him with improvements we bring to the car, with set-up changes, in order to lift the performance.”
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