Encouraging signs at Renault says Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo is encouraged by the pace shown by Renault on the final day of pre-season testing but refuses to let himself get carried away with the results.

Daniel Ricciardo topped his final session in pre-season testing at Barcelona as he completed his only qualifying simulation the winter.

“I’m pretty happy with my running today and finishing top of the timesheets in the morning session was a bonus, so it’s a nice way to round-off pre-season testing," said Ricciardo. "But it is testing, so I’m not getting overly excited about it.

"In the morning we resolved a few issues from yesterday, and looking back at the week as a whole, it has been positive for us. We’ve improved the overall balance of the car, worked through some set-up changes and our reliability has been strong."

Renault were widely regarded to have the weakest power unit on the grid by the end of the 2019 season and, with Red Bull having switched to Honda at the beginning of the year and McLaren announcing that they would be reverting back to using Mercedes power for 2021, the outside confidence in Renault's abilities is waning.

Inside however, Ricciardo is encouraged by the extensive mileage completed on the rigs at their base in Viry.

Ricciardo added, "I believe we’ve cranked up more kilometres on the engine tests back at Viry than we’ve ever had before, so this combined with our results over the two tests are ultimately encouraging signs ahead of the start of the season in Australia.”

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