Ricciardo: 'Angry' Renault will use Japanese GP setback as 'motivation'

Daniel Ricciardo says Renault is a team on a mission this weekend in Mexico, armoured with a motivation to get back the points it lost in Japan following its exclusion.

Renault's ambitions of bridging the gap with McLaren in the Constructors' standings suffered a big setback following the FIA's decision to exclude both Ricciardo and team mate Nico Hulkenberg from the Japanese GP's final classification.

The governing body found the French outfit to have been in breach of its sporting regulations at Suzuzka for using its brake-balance system as a driver's aid.

• Renault declines to appeal Japanese GP exclusion

The stewards' penalty wiped out 9 points for the team and its drivers, leaving Renault 43 points adrift from McLaren in the Constructors' championship.

"We’re angry and frustrated, but as a team we are like ‘screw this and let’s go get these points we lost’, so it’s motivation," said a determined Ricciardo.

"You use the bad days as motivation I think that’s the best thing and the good days you appreciate them.

"The race was nearly two weeks ago," he added. "I did what I could in the race to have a good one, I thought the race was a good one so obviously, yeah, the points are gone now but there was nothing I could have done differently or whatever.

"We have to brush it off and move forward.

"If we keep dwelling on the misfortunes or whatever circumstances we’ve had this year then we’ll probably always feel sorry for ourselves."

Ricciardo says that Renault's season year-to-date has pretty much been a story of misfortune or unforeseen circumstances that have prevented the team from moving forward.

"I do feel like this year it’s been tough for us to get momentum and coming in as a team with pretty high expectations to build on what they had last year, and it hasn’t really been that way so far," he said.

"And when we do get something going, something like this happens or my penalty in Singapore. It’s been hard for us to have momentum and have a real string of races.

"I feel like something always seems to be getting in the way. But again, if we just sit here and say 'poor us' then we aren’t really going to move forwards. There’s nothing else to do.

"We’ve got a double-header and I think for everyone in the paddock this is probably the favourite double-header of the year, so I think we should just use that happiness and positivity to try and get some good results."

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