While unhappy with his final position, Daniel Ricciardo says he is “okay” when reflecting on his first season at Renault.
After seven wins and 29 podiums across five years at Red Bull, the Australian’s bold move to the French manufacturer in 2019 largely disappointed as they slipped down to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Ricciardo himself would end the year in ninth in the Drivers’ standings and did acknowledge that was a position he didn’t take much pride in.
“Relatively speaking not great, I don’t see myself as the ninth-best driver on the grid,” he said via Crash.net. “I don’t look into it too much because I believe I am better.
“Do I want to be ninth for the next few years and have the excuse that I am better than ninth but it is what it is? No. I don’t like seeing myself in ninth.”
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That being said, his 54-point tally was 17 ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg, so from that perspective, the 30-year-old admitted it looked a little better.
“If Nico had 100 points, then I’d be very disappointed. If Nico had five points I’d be like wow an amazing season but I know I have more than Nico so I guess I can’t be disappointed,” Ricciardo explained.
“Relatively speaking I am okay with this season. It was always going to be difficult. Coming into a new team, people have done it before so it is not impossible to do.”
There were occasional signs of hope too, with fourth place in Monza his best finish and Ricciardo admits it was a much different challenge competing further down the grid than in recent seasons.
“I’m having to adapt more than, I’d say Charles [Leclerc at Ferrari],” he claimed. “But also for me going from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, and him from Alfa to Ferrari, coming into a car with more grip is normally easier.
“There are more expectations, but it does more things that you want it to do so that is easier than going from Red Bull to here.
“How I adapted to that, I was quite happy, but in a few races, I was not happy with myself, I expected more, but I developed well.”