{"id":20626,"date":"2024-04-29T11:28:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T15:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=20626"},"modified":"2024-04-29T11:28:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T15:28:59","slug":"f1-news-daniel-ricciardo-receives-vote-in-confidence-from-rb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/04\/29\/f1-news-daniel-ricciardo-receives-vote-in-confidence-from-rb\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ricciardo receives vote of confidence from RB"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Daniel Ricciardo remains well-supported by the RB squad.<\/h3>\n<p>After a sub-optimal start to the 2024 season, Daniel Ricciardo still has the support of RB &#8211; as outlined by Laurent Mekies. The 8-time race winner is working to rediscover his best form, which has generally eluded him in this year&#8217;s campaign. However, the Chinese GP was an encouraging event for Ricciardo, who will work to create some momentum in the upcoming events.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/04\/14\/helmut-marko-gives-verdict-on-tsunoda-red-bull-chances\/\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> has been the top performer at RB in 2024 so far. The 23-year-old has built on his impressive campaign last year to become a reliable contributor for the Faenza-based team. Only at the Shanghai circuit has Tsunoda&#8217;s form dipped, having shown consistent qualifying and race pace in the four rounds prior.<\/p>\n<p>His seven points in the Championship reflect what can be described as a very solid start. On the other side of the garage, teammate Daniel Ricciardo is having a slightly tougher time.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"b5_EcoiSSvFjllaCId3Obg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2149510428\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'b5_EcoiSSvFjllaCId3Obg',sig:'-M2vM922PxcwT4GrGpYHxMo_i334MrxPBAxS-26cQyo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2149510428',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>RB encouraged by Ricciardo&#8217;s China performance<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Only last season, the Australian was adapting well to life at Faenza. Despite joining the team mid-season, Ricciardo was demonstrating flashes of speed that excited much of the F1 paddock. Heading into this year, many expected 2024 to be a continuation of his promising trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Australian has complained about the AT04 for much of the season. One hypothesis for his lack of comfort in the car has been the chassis &#8211; which RB changed in Shanghai. Although the sample size is very limited, this tweak seems to have been beneficial.<\/p>\n<p>This will be encouraging for team principal Laurent Mekies, who was pleased with Ricciardo&#8217;s efforts in Shanghai:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Just before the safety car, Daniel was effectively attacking Lewis [Hamilton],&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/f1\/news\/rb-brands-ricciardo-tsunoda-chinese-gp-crashes-unnecessary\/10602374\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">motorsport.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;So, you know, we were on a strong pace, and we had the right tyres. We feel it could have been a fair battle with Nico&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But it is what it is. It&#8217;s racing. It didn&#8217;t go our way. But what is reassuring is A, [that] we had the pace here again to fight for that point, even though we started a bit on the back foot on Friday. But certainly, the race pace was there.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And B, it is nice to see Daniel performing at this level. He<\/em><em> has been making good steps forward in the background.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"x9cPiBrXQfRkfMxJ0yBiKA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2149491639\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'x9cPiBrXQfRkfMxJ0yBiKA',sig:'_jiGoKwtPvcphj_yu5RxBQPNAb7aljt84M3y7CxA4ts=',w:'594px',h:'387px',items:'2149491639',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Much at stake for the RB duo<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Generally speaking, the AT04&#8217;s performance has been disappointing. Many expected RB to contend further up the field this year &#8211; in light of their increased collaboration with Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>Even at the end of last season, the effects of Faenza&#8217;s strengthened ties with Milton Keynes were reflected on track. Whilst they are in a respectable P6 in the standings, they are only contesting for the lower end of the points.<\/p>\n<p>Still, they are at least competitive enough to evaluate how well Tsunoda and Ricciardo are performing. Moving forward, this duo will be trying to convince Red Bull they are deserving of a promotion. Of course, there is no guarantee of this &#8211; especially with Sergio Perez driving at a strong level.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, there is always the possibility that RB will call upon <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/04\/25\/f1-news-horner-there-is-no-guarantee-lawson-will-earn-f1-seat\/\" target=\"_self\">Liam Lawson.<\/a> To some extent, driving for Red Bull&#8217;s second team always comes with an element of uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the environment at RB seems &#8211; in relative terms &#8211; more forgiving than in previous seasons. This should provide Daniel Ricciardo with the conditions to address his early slump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Ricciardo remains well-supported by the RB squad. After a sub-optimal start to the 2024 season, Daniel Ricciardo still has the support of RB &#8211; as outlined by Laurent Mekies. The 8-time race winner is working to rediscover his best form, which has generally eluded him in this year&#8217;s campaign. However, the Chinese GP was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":20628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,77,68,23,2260],"class_list":["post-20626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-rb"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}