Daniel Ricciardo 'drained' by home grand prix workload in Melbourne

Ricciardo only qualified 12th for his first race with his new team, then ripped his front wing off when he took to the grass off the grid. Renault later retired his car as a precaution while running 16th.

The home favourite had a hectic promotional schedule in the build-up to the event.

His week included local press and Renault filming commitments on Tuesday, driving Rick Kelly's Nissan Supercar for a Castrol promotion on Wednesday, the F1 Live event on Wednesday evening, and countless appearances for sponsors and through his tie-up with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport at Albert Park from Thursday onwards.

"I'm just drained," he said. "I just try to please everyone this week and don't look after myself.

"We'll change it for next year."

Ricciardo underlined that he was not blaming the PR commitments for his poor weekend on track.

But he was clear that the promotional workload and the disappointing race had added up to a gruelling week.

"It's tough. I feel like the whole week we're... this week is a tough one," he said.

"We're always pushing uphill. You can never do enough, but I feel we do more than enough.

"I don't want to blame that, but I certainly didn't... I don't know, I feel flat for more reason than one."

Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul admitted that Ricciardo's first event with the team had been "a weekend mainly of lows", but added "we know that we can make it so much better and so much easier if we get things right in qualifying".

The sister Renault of Nico Hulkenberg progressed from 11th on the grid to finish the race seventh.