Daniel Ricciardo has made his Renault debut in Barcelona where he completed a filming day at the wheel of the RS19.
This came after comments made by Cyril Abiteboul at the launch of the car on Tuesday suggested that Renault may have to cancel the planned shakedown due to delays in the build schedule of the car.
"We should have a motorhome and a coffee machine working, but that is as far as I am 100% sure!" he joked.
These concerns even went as far as to suggest the team may miss the start of testing, so it marks a good achievement by the team to go ahead with everything as planned.
Ricciardo made the shock decision to move to the Enstone-based outfit after the summer break last season, but has admitted that he expects to be behind his former colleagues at Red Bull in the first few races of the season.
However, Ricciardo is optimistic that he can follow in the footsteps of Lewis Hamilton and build the team around him.
"I guess the dream was getting the team back to winning. That is really the big dream," said Ricciardo of Renault.
"I guess I had that with Red Bull as well and they came from winning ways and then fell off that a bit and then were trying to get that back.
"We got some wins but never really got the massive success that we were after.
"So I am still after that on a personal level. Absolutely that is the dream, to build this back up.
"What Lewis did at Mercedes, there is definitely part of that which inspires me.
"If I was able to do that here, I wouldn't complain."
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
Replies (2)
Login to replyRam Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Good luck Danny boy!
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
Bonza Ricco !!! Drive like wind and make those doubting your move eat their words - will need a little magic dust me thinks, but Im a romantic guy and Renault doing well would be a dream in 2019. If I hear right, the money the outfit are spending means they MUST threaten top 3 in 2020 regardless of what happens in '19.