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Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul has promised Daniel Riccardo that he will get the kind of tattoo an Australian wants if he takes the podium this season. It looked like Daniel was close at Spa, but he finished fourth. After the end of the race, he was asked, perhaps he will have to return to the topic of tattoos next weekend in Italy?
Question: You were very fast on the straights today, but your car did the corners well. Maybe after Monza Cyril will have to keep his promise? You know this country well, it will probably not be difficult to find a suitable teacher in Milan?
Daniel Riccardo: And what, Italians love tattoos, the tattoo culture is quite developed in this country; In my opinion, all his soccer players are covered in tattoos.
Overall we had an excellent pace today, although I was a bit annoyed by the tactics of Sergio Pérez and Pierre Gasly, who did not immediately go to the pitstop and, after the restart, they formed a kind of buffer between Max Verstappen and me. If it weren’t for this, I think with hard tires we could reach it. It would have been possible to overtake, I don’t know, but in any case our chances would have been much greater.
Q: Just before the finish, you drove the best lap of the race, which means your tires were in order and you were quickly catching up with Max. Was there an opportunity to add a little earlier? Or would there not be enough rubber resources then?
Daniel Riccardo: To be honest, as soon as I got ahead of Gasley, I felt like nothing was stopping me. But when I struggled with Pérez and Gasly, the tires overheated and I had to drive a few laps at a relatively calm pace to get the tires working again. After that, I gradually got closer to Max, and on the last loop I did my best. But maintaining that pace any longer was almost impossible.
Q: But on the first lap of the race it looked like you were going to pass your old Red Bull Racing teammate …
Daniel Riccardo: I remember, at first I thought I was too far away, but then I successfully tapped into the wake behind the leaders and then decided, “Okay, let’s try!” However, it is always difficult to comment on your own actions. I tried to get ahead of him, and if he had recovered later, well, then he would have recovered. But for my part it was not entirely reasonable to take the maximum risk in the first corners.
The most important thing is that I tried. And it doesn’t bother me that in that episode I showed maturity and attacked only 99%.
