Daniel Ricciardo has had somewhat of an up and down season in 2021, as he struggled to get to grips with his new McLaren machinery. After a breakthrough win in Monza, things were looking good for the Australian, but the rest of his season has failed to deliver on the expectations.

In the final qualifying session of the year, Ricciardo couldn’t match the pace of his teammate, who was P3 in the end, and only managed a lacklustre P10 on the grid. Earlier in the session, he was involved in a big traffic jam at the final sector, with several cars coming to a full stop or travelling at very low speeds. Speaking to selected media including MotorLAT, after the session, the Australian shared his thoughts on the anger showed by Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel regarding the situation:

“It was actually okay. Of course, like, in the heat of the moment – I totally get the frustration behind the wheel – I totally get it. We just came back from the stewards and we had a good discussion. I think the issue was – or the bigger issue – it’s just the pace on the out laps, having to go so slow.

The qualifying space race 🚀

The new Yas Marina layout caused a lot of jostling for position towards the end of Q2 #AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/4gxDzWCCFW

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 11, 2021

“At one point, Fernando [Alonso] was 40 seconds behind me, on his lap, when I was in turn 14, there’s no way he should catch me by the end of the lap, when I’ve only got two corners to go.

“I think the issue was the pace on the out laps, which creates these issues, which, as a driver, of course, at some point you kind of got no choice, you kind of just immerse on the pace around you. I think that’s kind of the wider discussion that needs to be had.

“I don’t know how to do that moving forward for next year. Ultimately people are just taking too big a gap, and they don’t need, 10 seconds, you don’t need that big of a gap to the car in front, so that’s where it just bottles up maybe too much this year.”

Regarding his performance in Q3, Ricciardo put his lack of pace down to not getting the tyre window right, highlighting his “problem with new tyres”:

“It was a tricky session. The new tyre was my biggest problem, I just wasn’t able to take another step with it. I’ve got to look into whether there’s something I can do differently to get the tyre in the right window. It’s on me to try to figure that out.”

On his race prospects, the Australian is hoping for some action in front, to enable him to “make the most of” the situation:

“We’ll try to do something from where we start tomorrow. Hopefully, there’s a few things happening that we can make the most of. Lando was strong, I’m really happy for him in third. Obviously, we’d love to be further up there with him, but I just didn’t have it today.”

See the hunger in those eyes. 🍯🦡 DR will bring the fight tomorrow. ✊#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 pic.twitter.com/llaXlwNAuk

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) December 11, 2021