Daniel Ricciardo believes he is "due" a good home race in Australia this weekend based on his mixed history in Melbourne.
In his past six visits to Albert Park, the Perth native has two retirements, one disqualification and three top-six finishes, including two fourth places.
However, last year saw the second of those retirements, so by the law of averages, Ricciardo thinks 2020 should be different.
"I guess there haven’t been many Australians, so like the statistics… It’s a game of percentages, right?" he said in the press conference on the poor record for Aussies in Melbourne.
"But anyway, I hope this one is good. I feel like one year’s good, one year’s not, but I think I’m due a good one. I’ve been preparing, been preparing well.
What made Ricciardo's race last year so frustrating was how it stemmed from being too ambitious at the start as he lost his front wing on the run to Turn 1.
It was also the worst possible start to his career at Renault, following his big move from Red Bull, but now with a year of experience in yellow and based on initial impressions of the 2020 car, the 30-year-old is calmer ahead of this weekend.
"Yes, I do," he said replying to a question on if he felt the team has taken a step forward.
"I think the test ended well for us. Day three of week two was a lot more promising and both my feedback and Esteban’s, you could see our expression when we got out of the car, it was certainly a lot more optimistic, so that was encouraging.
"I just look back at last year, the whole build-up and everything. I was watching some onboards before and I don’t know, I can just see me from the outside and I’m like, “yeah, I’m a lot more comfortable in this car now”, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do.
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The main topic on the media's mind at least on Thursday was the ongoing threat from the coronavirus, with five team members now in self-quarantine in Melbourne.
While Lewis Hamilton was among the more critical voices of F1 for pushing ahead, Ricciardo was more pragmatic.
"We may all have opinions but at the end of the day I'm here to compete and race cars," he said.
"There's people who are spending more time investing in it [monitoring the situation] than I am. I'm just following guidelines. I came here knowing that I'm going to compete. To be honest I don't want to say selfishly, but I've got my head down and [am] focused on the race.
"It's a tough one. I know it's real.
"Who knows really – at least in this room – we don't really know the extent of it all or how quickly it can spread, what level it's [at]. It's kind of left to the others for now."
