In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo said that he was just happy to be on the Belgian Grand Prix starting grid after what “hasn’t certainly been the most fun weekend.”
In brief
Ricciardo hoping 2022 “gets a bit more fun for the last eight”
Ricciardo said he put the distractions of the recent announcement he would split with McLaren at the end of this season behind him during this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“It hasn’t certainly hasn’t been the most fun weekend going through all this,” he told media including RaceFans after the race. “But at the same time, it was it was nice to get back in the car and just try to put everything behind me and have a bit of fun.”
Although he finished out of the points, Ricciardo said it was satisfying to return to the cockpit and is hoping for an enjoyable end to the season after his often disappointing year-and-a-half with the team.
“When all the red lights were going on today, I was smiling, and I was just happy to to be in that moment again,” he said. “I don’t think my start was that good, I think I still dropped down and it was a pretty terrible start, but there’s certainly some parts of it I enjoyed.
“But yeah, I’m glad that the bulk of this announcement is done and hopefully gets a bit more fun for the last eight.”
Alfa Romeo believe Bottas was on course for points
Alfa Romeo believes Valtteri Bottas would have had the correct strategy to score points at the Belgian Grand Prix had he not been forced to retire after ending up beached in a gravel trap while trying to avoid a collision with Nicholas Latifi.
“Our plan was to use soft, medium, medium, in the position that he was P13 on the grid,” explained head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar. “Then we think that, if you look at the strategy that Max did and also what we did with Zhou, then we think he should have been fighting for the points.
“Where exactly then is always ‘if, if’ over a lot of things but for sure [there was] potential to fight for the points, at least at the head of that group with Albon.”
Drugovich looking for F1 reserve role if he takes F2 title
Felipe Drugovich extended his Formula 2 title lead considerably in Spa, drawing out a 43-point gap over Théo Pourchaire. Although Drugovich is not linked to any F1 team he said he is not concerned whether, like 2019 F2 champion Nyck de Vries, he might fail to win promotion to the top flight next year.
“Somehow I’m going to…
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