Ricciardo reveals he was “a few hundredths off” Verstappen in crucial test

Ricciardo was in action for Red Bull following the race at Silverstone in a tyre test, with the outcome of it resulting in his return to F1 with AlphaTauri in place of Nyck de Vries.

At the time, there was a lot of speculation about how quick Ricciardo was in the RB19, and how impressive he was given his six months away from the sport.

Ricciardo confirmed that if his lap time was corrected due to the amount of fuel he was running, he’d have been within a tenth of Verstappen’s pole time from the Saturday at Silverstone.

“It was good to feel that pressure again. The first run I actually spun twice, not in the gravel or anything, but I didn’t get in my head like, ‘Man what are you doing’. It makes sense I hadn’t driven in months,” Ricciardo said on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“Then I started to put in some good times. I did maybe eight or 10 laps, came back in and we put some new tyres on, like FP2 fuel in the car. 

“I’m not going to sugar coat it. The first timed lap was on the money. Like on the money. You take the fuel out to take it to take it to qualy fuel, and it was a few hundredths off Max’s pole time.”

After two torrid years with McLaren, Ricciardo’s confidence to drive the Red Bull wasn’t affected.

“Coming into that lap, I was so excited. I was treating it like a qualifying lap. Mind you, 15 minutes earlier I felt like my head was going to come off in Turn 1, so I was like am I even going to be able to push on new tyres,” he added.

“I just had that feeling in the car and that confidence. There was elements of the car that felt so familiar … I kind of just knew what it could do and what it was capable of. I’m not going to say it was easy or effortless but I had a lot of confidence it could do what it could do. 

“Crossing the line, when I looked at the time, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I was expecting to go that quick’. I knew the day had potential to be a really good day but I’d be lying if I said I was going to do that first lap with new tyres. That was kind of wild. It gave me a big smile.”