Ricciardo 'looking forward to evening session' to push new McLaren

Daniel Ricciardo says he's starting to build his confidence in McLaren's MCL35M, but the Aussie is looking forward to driving his new car in cooler conditions on Sunday to assess its true potential.

So far, McLaren has enjoyed a trouble-free pre-season test in Bahrain, with the papaya squad running through its various programs with both its drivers unhindered.

For the second day running, Ricciardo topped the morning session at Sakhir. The Aussie is happy with his new charger's performance so far but was keen to sample the MCL35M in conditions more representative of what teams will encounter at Sakhir at the end of the month.

"It's certainly handling itself pretty well at the moment," he said. "But I need to get one of these evening sessions under my belt because, even though we've been quick on the timesheets, in the day sessions, the track is 40 degrees.

"It's not that representative of what I'm used to around here, so naturally the car is sliding and moving around so it doesn't feel electrifying. But relative to the track, we're obviously doing okay.

"So yeah, I think, 24 hours' time, I'll probably have a better understanding of really how well balanced it is.

"But I think both days you know, with a 180-degree wind direction change, we've been pretty solid so there's certainly more positives than not at the moment."

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Regardless of his car's performance, Ricciardo was satisfied with how McLaren's testing program is unfolding.

"We’ve been able to get a lot of laps in and tick off every run we had planned, which is important for us in terms of reliability and starting to build my confidence in the car," he said.

"I think it's all gone pretty smooth. I don't know what could have gone better yet. Faster lap times! But no generally, I think it's been pretty good.

"I think now, I do the evening session tomorrow, and that will just complete the picture.

"Obviously that's when we race here and qualify, so that will give me probably a better understanding of where the limit of the car is in let's say more optimal conditions."

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