F1 News
Leclerc expresses concerns after Ricciardo's unforeseen victory
- GPblog.com
Like last year, the Italian Grand Prix at the fast Monza circuit was a year of surprises. While the previous edition was won by Pierre Gasly, with Carlos Sainz driving for McLaren just inches behind him, this year the papaya-orange team managed to secure P1 and P2 in Lombardy.
Happy for Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo was the celebrated man at McLaren after a long absence from the podium, although the crash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will certainly have worked in his favor either. The sympathetic Australian drove to P1 from the start and that is how he crossed the finish line. After a failed adventure at Renault and a, so far, disappointing season at McLaren, where teammate Lando Norris usually beats him, a big boost for Ricciardo.
Where Norris is stringing together results, the young Brit currently 4th in the championship, Ricciardo's results are lagging behind: the former teammate of Verstappen was responsible for 'only' 83 of the 215 points McLaren managed to collect. Still, Ricciardo always has the favour factor, and so does Ferrari colleague Charles Leclerc: "I'm very happy for Daniel. It was nice to see the Daniel of recent years finally back," the Monegasque explained at Formule1.nl.
Problem for Ferrari?
Leclerc admits that Ricciardo's sudden resurgence could be a bad thing for Ferrari, when McLaren suddenly have two drivers who can drive to the podium. It once again accentuates the need for the Italian team to get results. "This pushes us to try and perform perfectly every weekend, and that's exactly what we want to do over the coming weekends," Leclerc said.