Ricciardo says McLaren need strong Qatar weekend ‘to have a real shot’ in P3 fight with Ferrari

With just three races left to run in 2021, Ferrari now sit 31.5 points clear of rivals McLaren after a strong run of form – with McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo admitting that his team need a big scoring weekend at the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix to retain any hope of remaining in the fight with the Scuderia for P3.

McLaren’s impressive performance in 2021 has yielded a full five podiums (one more than Ferrari), including Ricciardo’s astounding victory at Monza back in September, McLaren’s first win since 2012.

But an engine upgrade for Ferrari from Sochi, coupled with first-lap incidents for Ricciardo and team mate Lando Norris in the previous two races in Mexico and Brazil, have seen McLaren slip 31.5 points behind Ferrari in their fight for third in the constructors’ – with Ricciardo realistic about the sort of weekend McLaren need to have at the Losail International Circuit to stay in the hunt for P3.

“It's a bit more of stretch now for sure,” said Ricciardo, whose retirement at Interlagos last time out ended a 34-race streak of finishes for the Australian. “It's not over till it is over, but [Ferrari] have really capitalised the last couple of weekends when obviously both of us had first-lap incidents. And obviously, the lead car had the first-lap incident, which hurt a lot.

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - NOVEMBER 13: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF21 — Ferrari are now 31.5 points clear of McLaren

“Looking over the whole season, I think Ferrari have been there from really race one,” added Ricciardo. “They had a few poles [in Monaco and Baku] as well in that early part. I don't want to say... we're not definitely conceding yet, but I think we've done well to keep up the fight till now.

“But we'll definitely have to have a better weekend than them [in Qatar] if we want any really shot at this. But we'll just keep doing our thing and hopefully get a few more points than we've had the last couple of weekends.”

Norris agreed that the odds were now in Ferrari’s favour when asked ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend about McLaren’s prospects of claiming P3 in the constructors’ this year, saying: “Of course it's possible, but it's obviously getting harder, and realistically we're in a much more difficult position than we ever have been all season.

“The last few weeks, Ferrari have done just a very good job, they've maximised their races like we did in the first half of the season and we've, I guess, made a couple of mistakes here and there – and my mistake in Brazil [where Norris tagged Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at the race start, causing himself a puncture] last weekend definitely didn't help this whole situation.

Daniel Ricciardo unsure how McLaren will compare with Ferrari in Qatar

“But we still have a chance, of course,” added Norris. “I think these next few tracks are hopefully going to suit us a little bit more than the Ferraris, so this will be our time to try and make up some points.”

Ricciardo, meanwhile, agreed with his team mate that the Qatar track could suit McLaren this weekend, telling the media in Losail: “I did the sim. It's obviously a track I don't know, I hadn't done it on the sim or anything before. I enjoyed it.

“It's pretty quick, there's a lot of fourth, fifth, sixth-gear corners; hopefully that somehow suits us. I think we're decent in the fast corners, but let's see. I'm excited to drive on a new circuit. I've watched it on MotoGP for many years so it's cool to be able to drive around here now.”