Riccardo Relaxed, Ready

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By Andrew
March 15 2012

There has been alot of attention placed on young Daniel Riccardo during the build up to his home Grand Prix, the season-opening event in Melbourne, but the Aussie says that he has been able to take it all in stride. 

The twenty-two year old native of Perth says that the various media events leading up to this weekend have not been a drain on him, and that he is focused and ready. He feels more relaxed than he did last year at Silverstone, when he made his F1 debut in an HRT with basically no pre-GP weekend testing. He credits STR's preseason testing program with making him feel more relaxed about climbing into the car this time around.

Riccardo also likes that his bosses at STR are encouraging him to look for the absoulte limits of the car's abilities - even though that will occasionally lead to a few mistakes along the way.   

"They've said 'if you make a mistake, it happens. At least we know you're pushing it'. Obviously we're not going out there trying to crash the car, but  sometimes a team needs to see you go off, whether it's a crash or you run across the grass, to know that you're trying to find that limit. I'm not going to hold back."

While acknowledging that Toro Rosso likely won't be challenging for podiums, Daniel has set his sites firmly on collecting points, and hopes to gain his first this weekend.