MIAMI — It would be fair to say that the 2024 Formula 1 season has not started the way Daniel Ricciardo has wanted. Following his shocking return to the grid midway through last year, and the work he did to see AlphaTauri move up the Constructors’ standings in the late stages of the season, Ricciardo has yet to open his account here in the 2024 campaign.
Complicating matters was how his weekend ended in Shanghai. Not only was Ricciardo knocked out of the Chinese Grand Prix when Lance Stroll drove into him on a restart, Ricciardo was hit with a three-place grid drop after the Chinese Grand Prix for a breach of Safety Car Regulations, complicating things this weekend.
Still, as the driver made clear speaking with the media here at Hard Rock Stadium, he is excited to just get into the car again.
“But yeah, when you don’t see a checkered flag, you just want to race again,” explained Riccardo to the media, including SB Nation on Thursday. “You just want to get back in the car. And for that, I’m actually really happy It’s a sprint weekend because it’s two races.”
“And, yeah, I just excited to be here.”
Ricciardo was asked a number of questions about the incident with Stroll, which saw the Aston Martin penalized as well for the accident. Stroll maintained after the incident that he did nothing wrong, and that it was a result of cars stacking up following a restart.
The Visa Cash App RB F1 Team driver outlined that he had not heard from Stroll, and was not sure what could be accomplished at this point if he reached out.
“He clearly doesn’t think he did anything wrong,. So I guess there’s not much to say,” said Ricciardo, before adding “I have certainly moved on.”
Ricciardo also addressed the slow start ot the season, and some improvements that were made to the chassis of his RB01 ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. The driver clearly believes that the car is moving in the right direction for him.
“I definitely felt a lot better in China and yeah, hopefully that’s the start,” said Ricciardo. “But a lot of it comes out here feeling and being comfortable, you know? There was, honestly, something that once I hit the track in China, I did feel like I had a bit more.
“So whether that is a physical change that maybe something chassis provided me, and it just gave me a bit more feeling of really what the car is gonna do. So that was good.”