Ricciardo 'watched a lot of gearboxes' in tough Belgian GP

Daniel Ricciardo rued a general lack of grip at Spa that limited his pace in the Belgian Grand Prix, but the AlphaTauri F1 returnee acknowledged that he still has a lot to learn about his AT04.

After a decent return to the fray in Hungary, Ricciardo's second race with AlphaTauri saw the Aussie thrown into a rain-impacted sprint weekend with only a single practice session to lock in his car's set-up.

Ricciardo's final flyer in the first segment of qualifying looked like it would easily carry him into Q2 until his effort was flagged for a track limit offence, which left him stranded in P19 on Sunday's grid.

In the race, Ricciardo ran as high as P12 but was otherwise confined to the lower tier of the midfield where he ended his day in 16th position, a performance that contrasted with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda's strong run within the top ten at Spa.

• Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2023 Belgian GP

"I felt quite, let's say, limited today in terms of pace," the 34-year-old told the media, singling out his car's lack of front end grip.

"I think even in clear air I was struggling a lot. Honestly, just getting the front [to grip], all through the middle sector, all the high speed [sections], I was just washing, washing [out].

"It was probably not that we weren’t turning the tyres on, but probably just not producing enough grip, and then I was sliding and overheating really quickly.

"In clear air, we didn't break away from the pack, we couldn't. It felt like they were able to get more out of their tyres early. So then I was normally getting overtaken, while we all had fresh tyres.

"And then when it settled, I'd have a bit better pace, but stuck behind them. And then obviously, we know that's not good for tyres as well. So a bit of a tough race."

Taking stock of his weekend, Ricciardo put his performance into perspective.

"I don't want to be too discouraged, it was our only dry session all weekend, so it could be something simple with set-up, we went the wrong way, and that's that.

"But yeah, I just wish I could have been able to attack a little more.

"I was always around cars that were really quick on the straight as well. So I was watching a lot of gearboxes today," he joked.

"People have gearboxes as like mantlepieces in their house. It's not really my thing, so I don't need to see any more!"

Ricciardo admitted that he's still learning about his AlphaTauri mount and especially its weaknesses which were more evident at Spa than they were a week before in Hungary.

"For me today, I didn't feel like the car was on," he explained. "So even for the given downforce I felt like with a new tyre we weren't really getting that peak out of it.

"And I wasn't really feeling it kind of bite and load up. So that's probably the thing where we’ll obviously try to understand where we missed.

"Especially with the rain all weekend, the track felt green, it did feel like it was pretty average conditions. The race pace felt quite slow. So all these things probably contribute. It's all learning.

"I think as well I'm always going to be quite hard on myself. But I shouldn't be expecting the world at the moment. It's all learning, but hopefully we’ll get a few more answers."

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