Daniel Ricciardo looking forward to return of "intense" F1 Sprint format at Monza
Daniel Ricciardo says he is looking forward to the challenges posed by the second F1 Sprint event at Monza, as his McLaren team reveals their strategic approach to the event.
Daniel Ricciardo welcomes the challenge of the “intense” qualifying format. (Motorsport Images/McLaren)
“Monza is a good race and a fun weekend,” said the Australian.
“It’s an awesome track to drive and great for racing as well.”
“It often provides some good opportunities.”
“If you’re quicker than the car ahead and you’ve got speed, you can normally overtake, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.”
Ricciardo will have more opportunity to overtake than ever before at the Italian circuit, with two races to take place in the sprint format.
The weekend begins with just one practice session before qualifying on Friday.
One more practice session takes place on Saturday before the sprint race, with the Grand Prix keeping it’s Sunday timeslot.
"Italy is always fun,” he said. “Great food and another circuit with an amazing atmosphere.”
“It’s also the second sprint weekend, which will be pretty intense.”
“We’ve got one practice to get into it, and then we’re into quali.”
“It’s definitely a higher pressure situation for us, so we’ll need to hit the ground running, get up to speed quickly and take away some points.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Daniel Ricciardo says he is looking forward to the second F1 Sprint event at Monza. (Supplied)
McLaren’s Executive Director, Operations, Piers Thynne, has revealed the strategic planning that goes into preparing for the sprint format.
“Sprint races are still fairly new to us.”
“We approached the first sprint event at Silverstone as a base to understand the format and look at various strategies for a different operational approach.”
“From our learnings, we decided to keep our pre-existing approach going into Monza, with the additional stock in the system being able to support the team and enable us to react if there is an issue.”
Teams had the added challenge of a triple-header, as the Italian Grand Prix is the third in three weeks.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how this different format plays out at one of the most exciting tracks on the calendar.”
