Ricciardo to run simulator tests to close Norris gap

In brief

Ricciardo to run simulator tests to close Norris gap

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl says that Daniel Ricciardo will carry out runs in McLaren’s simulator before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to help understand where he is losing time compared to Lando Norris.

Ricciardo finished out of the points in both the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix, while team mate Lando Norris scored a combined 13 points despite battling the effects of tonsillitis. Seidl says Ricciardo will carry out work in the team’s simulator ahead of the next race in Baku as part of a standard process of helping him to understand why he appeared to lack the pace of his team mate.

“As always, after a race weekend – and it doesn’t matter what the result is or how the race went – the thing I do is thank my drivers for trying hard all weekend and doing the job they did on track,” said Seidl. “It’s simply important as always to stay calm and focussed and committed on both sides, which Daniel is, which we are.”

The team’s post-race analysis will help Ricciardo address his “difficulties in order to extract the maximum from the car compared to Lando,” said Seidl. “We will do some simulator work as well before we head to Baku and then hopefully we can make another small step these next races in order to get Daniel to be one hundred percent feeling comfortable with the car – especially when it comes to qualifying, when you have to push it to the absolute limit.”

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