Daniel Ricciardo remains certain that his Renault car is the fourth best on the grid despite not showing it at the Australian Grand Prix.
Both he and teammate Nico Hulkenberg failed to make it into Q3 in qualifying, starting 12th and 11th respectively, while four of their midfield rivals all got drivers into the top 10.
Certainly, it calls into question just how much progress the French manufacturer has made over the winter, but their new star asset insists Melbourne was not representative.
“The car belongs in the points,” Ricciardo was quoted by Crash.net. “I think we should be a top eight car all the first part of the season and then hopefully better."
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Hulkenberg did offer a glimpse of Renault's potential by moving upto seventh in the race but acknowledged it was far from easy.
“I was under big pressure at the end so I really had to fight to hang on for that seventh place,” the German explained.
At the start of the weekend, Ricciardo surprised everyone with a bold new helmet design for 2019 made up bright colours and featuring the words 'stop being them'.
Naturally, it caused a stir as to what they were referring to, but the 29-year-old denied it was a dig at his former team.
“It’s not targeted at Red Bull, but just having the freedom [with Renault] to do whatever I want, I figured why not go for something crazy and different,” Ricciardo told ESPN.
“So, ‘stop being them’ is basically just encouragement to be yourself and don’t follow trends. If you like going a certain way, then be bold and do it.”
