Why Ricciardo needs to put anomalous 2019 behind him

"Anomaly - is that the word?" asks Daniel Ricciardo, smiling as ever.

The Renault driver is cheerily chatting his way through a media session midway through the first pre-season test of the 2020 Formula 1 season at Barcelona.

He will end the test with the 10th-quickest time, with team-mate Esteban Ocon putting Renault third in the teams' ranking. Renault will finish the test with 380 laps on the board, with the early indications suggesting another year of action-packed midfield scrapping lies ahead.

The team struck a placating note at the launch of the new RS20, understandably downplaying expectations for the coming season. But 2020 can't be a campaign where Ricciardo, who turns 31 this year, helps keep the ship steady. He needs to be making waves, ideally a swell that he and Renault can surf to the high-profile results he missed last season.

After five years of chasing wins and podiums with Red Bull, Ricciardo ended his first season with Renault without a single rostrum visit, and a best result of fourth at Monza, as he took ninth in the drivers' standings last year. That wasn't a bad return by any stretch.

For a driver joining a new team up against a talented Nico Hulkenberg, who had got his feet under the table in the previous two seasons, to come away as the lead points scorer constitutes a promising campaign. But promising won't cut it for Ricciardo in 2020 - the second and final year of the lucrative deal he signed in 2018.

Last year was the bedding-in season, a chance for Ricciardo and Renault to bond with the pressure slightly off - not something he'd experienced much during his Red Bull years trying to please Helmut Marko on the way up the ladder, leading the senior team alongside newcomer Daniil Kvyat, or trying to outfox first Sebastian Vettel and later Max Verstappen.

Now he and Renault know each other, the Australian says he "feels a lot more normal" heading into a new campaign.

"I don't want to claim that it's built around me or it is my race car, but some of the learnings we found together are on this year's car" Daniel Ricciardo

"Last year [was about] just changing team and just trying to also give them as much feedback as possible but also not create chaos in their brains - trying to balance that and also still trying to build relationships," he says.

"[It meant] just being kind of smart with how I relayed information and not to just come in and be the loudest guy in the room, you know? I think now this year, I would say it compares to Red Bull testing. Last year was a bit of an anomaly. That stood out."

After adapting from the grip and overall performance levels that had become second-nature at Red Bull, Ricciardo bonded with the RS19 and took it to some eye-catching results and moments in 2019. Qualifying fourth at Montreal was a standout, as was his Class B 'win' at Austin.

In the process, he outscored Hulkenberg and, with the German driver edged out of Enstone in favour of Ocon, Ricciardo is now the incumbent. Suddenly the air of underperformance-understanding - not that there is much of that about in F1 - is with his team-mate.

His early impression of the RS20 is that "that there are improvements", and Ricciardo was pleased to dip under the Barcelona track's 1m20-second barrier on his "second lap" of the first day.

"So sub 1m20s very quickly," he continues.

"I think that it was a bit of familiarity - obviously getting into the car the second year now, but it certainly did have initial good impressions. Getting down to that level of grip and downforce, it was a bit easier than what I remember [last year] for sure, or being able to use that level of grip.

"But I guess now it's when you start looking for that extra half a second - that's when it really starts and we'll see what the car is capable of.

"Because the car is an evolution of last year, a lot of the things on the car I guess are some of my input from driving the car last year, or a lot of the things that maybe stayed the same are things that I enjoyed on the car.

"I don't want to claim that it's built around me or it is my race car, but some of the learnings we found together are on this year's car."

If, as expected, Renault is again engaged in a very congested midfield fight - likely to extra packed as a result of Racing Point's predicted resurgence - Ricciardo needs to shine brightly in 2020.

His reputation as a bold and brilliant overtaker and racer remains, and he is certainly a popular paddock figure. All of this, allied with the results he has already collected, will be important when it comes to what happens beyond the upcoming season.

Although Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have locked down long-term deals at Red Bull and Ferrari, the 2020 silly season for 2021 still has explosive potential. Lewis Hamilton is yet to start talks with Mercedes about a new deal post-2020, with Valtteri Bottas, as ever, out to make sure he continues with the Silver Arrows. Vettel's place at Ferrari remains uncertain, even if the team has recently said he is its first choice to partner Leclerc next year.

Ricciardo at his best would be an asset to either of those squads, which Red Bull clearly recognised when it moved to keep him at the team for last year before his shock switch to Renault was completed.

Of course, there is no guarantee he would walk into one of those seats even if they were available, but keeping up the momentum he built last season and adding some glittering results would do Ricciardo's chances no harm at all. Renault, too, would reap the reward and would also surely be keen to retain his services.

Before he does anything else, Ricciardo must see off Ocon's considerable threat in the intra-Renault fight. But, without the need to learn a new team and car-style, he must go into the new season free of the "anomaly" feeling of 2019, and looking to quickly burgeon his well-established reputation.