Daniel Ricciardo confident of turnaround after 12th place result at Melbourne Grand Prix

The 34-year-old finished 12th at the Australian Grand Prix, taking advantage of the carnage around him, to record his best finish of the season.

But it was well short of his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, who scored the team’s first points of the season with a credible eighth after qualifying in the same position.

The result leaves Ricciardo in a tenuous position in the team with rumours over the weekend he is on notice from Red Bull Racing’s team director Helmut Marko.

The Austrian is believed to have given the Australian a couple of rounds to improve his results or face the prospect of being replaced by New Zealand Red Bull Academy driver Liam Lawson.

“No disrespect to you guys (media) but I know I’m on this little process and journey and I need to focus on myself,” he told the media after the race.

“If I let any of the noise in it’s going to distract me from the path I am on.

“I also understand I didn’t expect to start the season like this.

“At Budapest last year I joined the team the day before and then I out-qualified Yuki and had a really strong race.

“Having a full pre-season and all that and the races last year I honestly thought we’d start a lot stronger.”

The race saw Ricciardo start on the soft tyres, which compromised his race, as he was forced to get on to the hard tyres earlier than the rest of the field.

The Australian was able to survive graining in the first stint on hard tyres before setting fast times in the second stint on hards but was not able to make inroads into gaining a top-ten finish and a point.

“The idea was to come out and get a bit of a clear track but I think everyone was really on it (early),” Ricciardo said about the option to go on softs.

“It probably worked a little bit, could have maybe worked more, but I think when you are at the back you have to try something.”

Ricciardo said despite there being room for improvement from him the feel for the car was better and he’s confident of a turnaround in form ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks time.

“There were some moments it looks more encouraging,” he said.

“It’s not a confidence thing, it’s simply I feel like a lot of time I’m not able to keep the speed that I see Yuki is able to do.

“I’ll see what I can do better and I’ll be asking plenty of questions to the team.

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“We will have some bits and pieces come on to the car in the next one or two races.

“I expect it to be a quick turnaround.

“Before you know it we’ll be doing great again.”

Originally published as Daniel Ricciardo confident of turnaround after 12th place result at Melbourne Grand Prix