Daniel Ricciardo admits he is “in a good place” with McLaren ahead of his first race with the team in Bahrain.
The Woking-based outfit caught the eye of the Formula 1 paddock in testing two weeks ago, as the Australian posted the quickest time on both the first and second morning.
In fact, such was the speed that McLaren showed, Sky Sports’ Ted Kravtiz thinks they intentionally backed off a little towards the end.
“It was a weird test, actually,” he told the In The Fast Lane podcast. “McLaren had a very good day one in the dusty conditions and then they had a good day two. Then they all sort of went coy and thought ‘Oh my goodness, better not show everything’.
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“It’s like McLaren scared, spooked themselves into not giving anything away and stopped setting quick times to put everybody off the scent, but they were very happy towards the end of it.
“And that wasn’t just because they thought ‘Oh look, we’ve stolen a march on everybody with this diffuser’,” he added. “It’s just because everything, globally as they might say at McLaren, is looking optimal.
“There was even some [thinking] that they may actually be quicker than the factory Mercedes team themselves. Some people have got McLaren as second behind Red Bull.”
While that last point might be a little too ambitious, Ricciardo did acknowledge how well his start at McLaren had gone.
“We were all concerned that we only had three days – and only three half-days per driver – but I think when reliability is working and everything is running smooth, it was enough time to get comfortable,” he said on Thursday.
“I’m sure I will continue to get better just the more I drive the car and get familiar with the team, but I certainly feel I’m in a good place to start the season and I think for an expectation of where the team is, we have to really try and fight for and know we are in that top three where the team was last year.”
Ricciardo also revealed the pretty intense process he’s gone through to get ready for Bahrain.
“They’ve worked me pretty hard over the last two months!” he said with his trademark smile.
“But there’s been a method to the madness, it hasn’t wasted my time. We’ve worked efficiently and I think it shows they’ve put the work in and are getting the results, as they’ve shown the last couple of years.
“From the outside looking into McLaren over the last couple of years, obviously they’ve turned a massive corner,” he added. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm and motivation, and there’s a real sense of momentum in the team.”