Summer break will act as a ‘nice reset’ for Renault - Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo believes Formula 1’s summer break comes at a good time for Renault to have a “nice reset” and review the first half of the 2019 season.

Renault has endured a tricky campaign so far after facing early reliability issues and a lack of competitiveness at recent rounds. The French manufacturer claimed the midfield leaders spot in 2018 but currently only occupies sixth place in the constructors’ championship and trails fourth-placed McLaren by over 40 points.

The team was hopeful of further reducing the gap to the leading three teams this year, particularly following the statement signing of Ricciardo from Red Bull, but Renault has struggled to string together a consistent run of strong results.

Nico Hulkenberg crashed out from a podium spot in wet conditions during the German Grand Prix, while Ricciardo was setback in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying after encountering traffic and started at the back of the field.

“I don’t want to say it negatively, but it is nice to reset for everyone, and sometimes you need to step away for a bit to actually review things,” Ricciardo said following qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“Your kind of go, go, go, especially on back-to-back weekends, you don’t really put yourself from a distance and say what can I do better, what can the team do better? Also for me personally to assess the first 6 months with the new team.

“I had, I don’t want to say expectations, but scenarios in my head at the start of the year how things would go.

“Now I can assess where it is, and try to understand also what I can do better within myself and within the team to keep everything going, and not let days like this emotionally make me kind of do things that are not positive.

“The summer break will be good for us. I’m confident the second half will be better. We are just going to stay above water now and keep everyone’s spirits high. I know that we will get there.”