ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo left to ponder why he was ‘not competitive’ at the British Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,left,to,ponder,why,he,was,not,competitive,at,the,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

On: July 7, 2024 By: admin

One of Formula 1’s most iconic figures climbed to the top step of the podium Sunday at Silverstone, as Lewis Hamilton finally broke through into the winner’s column in the British Grand Prix. It was the seven-time champion’s first victory since the penultimate race of the 2021 F1 season.

However, another transformative figure in the sport was left to wonder where things went wrong as he came across the line down in 13th.

Daniel Ricciardo, who was on the back foot almost the entire week in Silverstone, finished outside the points Sunday at the British Grand Prix. Speaking after the race, the Australian driver — and one of the most popular figures in the sport — was left to ponder what might have happened.

“It was a mixed conditions race which was exciting; ultimately grabbing some opportunities, but unfortunately, we were not competitive,” said Ricciardo in the team’s post-race report. “It was one of those days where we struggled more than we should have, so we’ll try to get into it and figure out why. In the last three weekends, I think we have lost out a little bit on the latest upgrades battle compared to some of our competitors in the midfield, so we’ve got some work to do looking at the next races.

“It’s good now to have a week off for all of us to reset and come back to Budapest which is a completely different circuit.”

Speaking with Lawrence Barretto in the television pen after the race, Ricciardo elaborated on how he felt in the car, highlighting how the pace was simply not there for his RB01 this week in Silverstone.

“I felt like we struggled more than we should have,” said Ricciardo. “I know that this isn’t necessarily going to be a real competitive circuit for us. But I still felt [relatively speaking] we struggled more. [So we’ll] try and get into it and figure out why that was.”

Looking ahead to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ricciardo outlined how the team needs to “rectify some weaknesses” before the grid is back in action in Budapest.

“I think compared to some of our competitors in the midfield, we have lost out a little bit in the latest upgrade battle,” said Ricciardo. “I think Budapest is [a] completely different circuit. So let’s see.

“But yeah, it’s not enough for us just to be like ‘that track will suit us and we’ll be ok.’

“We obviously got to rectify some weaknesses and I’ll obviously look at my race and figure out where I lack the pace, but there were times we were like missing about eight-tenths a lap and I didn’t really feel like that was there.

“So, yeah, just one of those days.”

And with that, Ricciardo was off, left to ponder where he and Visa Cash App RB F1 Team can find those critical eight-tenths.

Daniel Ricciardo not making any proclamations after frustrating Saturday for VCARB at the British Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,not,making,any,proclamations,after,frustrating,saturday,for,vcarb,at,the,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

On: July 6, 2024 By: admin

A week ago at the Austrian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo delivered a bold statement despite missing out on the third segment of qualifying. Ricciardo outlined how the RB01 was a “top ten” car despite his elimination in Q2, and he backed up that proclamation with a points finish at Red Bull Ring.

There were no similar proclamations from Ricciardo following Saturday’s qualifying session at the British Grand Prix.

Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda were both eliminated in Q2, with Tsunoda set to start 13th in the main event Sunday, and Ricciardo behind him in 15th. To hear the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team driver tell it, he was not “happy” with how things unfolded on Saturday at Silverstone.

“I’m not particularly happy with today’s qualifying; it wasn’t a good session, and this is something we need to figure out,” said Ricciardo. “Both runs in Q2 didn’t go as expected, and we struggled to get the lap in, leading me to do some overtaking in the last corner, which is something I hate when people do it to me.

“I started my last push lap a couple of seconds behind Zhou [Guanyu], and with the dirty air, you’re never going to get a good lap. The last three weekends haven’t been easy, but we found a way to make it work,” added Ricciardo. “Coming into Silverstone with the same struggles has also added to today’s frustrations because we don’t have the luxury to be able to get things wrong. We’ll address all we need during tonight’s debrief and look ahead at the race.”

While Ricciardo was frustrated with how Saturday played out, his teammate was a bit more pleased with the session.

“I’m happy with how we handled today; the team and I worked well together and communicated during qualifying to adapt to the changing weather conditions,” described Tsunoda. “We knew it would be difficult coming into quali because we’ve been lacking pace throughout Free Practice, and it’s a shame we haven’t been able to quite turn it around as much as we would’ve liked to, but the field is tight, and anything can happen.

“We’re struggling with pace in the high-speed corners at this track, which is similar to last week, but we’ll work hard to maximise our performance tomorrow. We had good pace in the wet and we’ll adapt based on the weather conditions and communicate, that’s the key.”

VCARB Technical Director Jody Egginton noted that the team might not have put Ricciardo in the best position during Q2, but that there is potential for the team on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t put Daniel in good enough conditions for his final run in Q2 which got him caught up in a lot of traffic, altering his position for tomorrow,” said Egginton. “We find ourselves slightly back from where we want to be, but laps time deltas to the cars around us are small and the team is pushing hard to extract everything from the car.”

Salvaging something on Sunday could be critical for the team in their fight with Haas in the F1 Constructors’ Championship. VCARB currently sits in sixth place in the standings, 11 points clear of Haas. But with Nico Hülkenberg starting sixth on Sunday Haas has tremendous potential to cut into that lead. If Riccardo and/or Tsunoda can find a way to forge into the points, it would be a massive step for the team.

And it would perhaps ease some of the frustration Ricciardo is feeling this Saturday at Silverstone.

Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda hoping to rebound after ‘tricky’ start to British Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,and,yuki,tsunoda,hoping,to,rebound,after,tricky,start,to,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

On: July 5, 2024 By: admin

At the Austrian Grand Prix Daniel Ricciardo rebounded from a slow start in the first practice session to ultimately finish ninth in the main event, delivering two hard-earned points for Visa Cash App RB F1 Team and quelling — for the moment at least — rampant rumors about his F1 future.

After a “tricky” Friday at Silverstone, he will need a similar rebound to finish in the points at the British Grand Prix.

Ricciardo finished in P13 during Friday’s first practice session and was at the back of the grid in P19 in FP2. Things were not too much better on the other side of the garage, as teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s spin in FP1 cut his session short with him down in P20. Tsunoda came back for FP2 and improved a bit on his time, posting the 16th-fastest time of the session.

Both drivers are hoping for more on Saturday.

“It was a tricky day,” admitted Ricciardo in the team’s post-practice report. “We found some answers for that trickiness in FP2 due to a few issues on the car in terms of load. It was a bit of a bummer because obviously you still try to do what you can, but it was a bit inconclusive on what our true pace is. In general, we’ll be trying to work on a few weaknesses we’ve seen and getting it better for tomorrow.

“We’ll try to find the course once we look at the data, but I’m confident it’s nothing too weird,” Ricciardo added. “It’s going to be a tough circuit this year, but we should be able to clean that up and be further up the grid than we were today.”

Tsunoda referred to his spin in FP1 as a less than “ideal” way to start the weekend.

“I didn’t have the ideal start to the race weekend with FP1 and lost some valuable track time, but we managed to collect plenty of data in FP2. I think we know where we’re at now,” said Tsunoda. “We didn’t expect to struggle as much as we did in FP2, but there’s more time to come from us and I’m sure we can find a couple more tenths for tomorrow and fight for Q3. It doesn’t seem our car quite suits these track characteristics with the long high-speed corners, but others just seem to be stepping it up. They’re doing a good job, so we’ll continue working and fighting for more.”

VCARB Racing Director Alan Permane echoed the team’s drivers, calling Friday a “challenging” start.

“A challenging day for us, starting with Yuki’s spin, which cost him almost all of the first session. This meant he wasn’t as prepared as he could have been for FP2 and didn’t get the most out of things. He’s generally happy with the car though,” added Permane. Daniel struggled with some instability at the rear and it’s clear we’ve got work to do overnight to find some low-speed performance which is costing lap time. We will have one eye on the weather as rain is forecast for both days over the weekend and we will take this into account with our setup choices. We need to get everything perfect to give our drivers a shot at Q3 tomorrow.”

As with the Austrian Grand Prix, Friday brought even more wild rumors on the Ricciardo front. While Red Bull Ring was abuzz with talk that Ricciardo could be facing the drop at VCARB, Friday’s rumors included a wild swing in the opposite direction, with speculation that the recent run of poor form from Sergio Pérez — and Ricciardo’s upward trend in recent weeks — could open the door to a swap between the drivers.

German outlet Auto Motor und Sport reported on Friday that performance clauses in Pérez’s and Ricciardo’s contracts could make such a swap possible next season. Reportedly, Red Bull is hoping to see improvement from Pérez in Budapest and Spa.

As is often the case, Dr. Helmut Marko fanned the flames even more, telling Auto Moto und Sport “[w]e’ll know more by the summer break,” while not dismissing the reports.

Tricky, indeed.

Daniel Ricciardo delivers on his Saturday promise at the Austrian Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,delivers,on,his,saturday,promise,at,the,austrian,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 30, 2024 By: admin

Daniel Ricciardo’s millions of fans might want him to keep making predictions.

A year ago at the Mexico City Grand Prix the Formula 1 driver declared that his car had top ten potential after the first two practice sessions. Ricciardo proved that over the next two days, qualifying fourth for the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix and then finishing seventh in the main event. It was Ricciardo’s best result after his shocking mid-season return to the grid, and went a long way towards him keeping that seat for the 2024 campaign.

On Saturday at Red Bull Ring Ricciardo just missed out on Q3, finishing 0.015 seconds behind tenth-place finisher Esteban Ocon. That saw Ricciardo’s qualifying session for the Austrian Grand Prix end in Q2, but the Australian driver remained as optimistic as ever, offering another slight prediction following qualifying.

“Of course, it’s frustrating to miss out on Q3 by just a few milliseconds this afternoon, but at the same time, it’s a more positive one as I think we made some progress since yesterday and it’s something we have to be proud of,” said Ricciardo in Visa Cash App RB F1 Team’s post-qualifying report Saturday. “I think we still need to find something a little bit extra for tomorrow but today’s qualifying put us in a much better position for the race. It’s going to be a longer one with pit stops and [tire] differences, so there’s no reason to believe we can’t be a top ten car tomorrow.”

On Sunday, Ricciardo proved himself right.

Ricciardo started his 250th-career F1 race in P11, but moved up into the top ten, running a clean race to secure P9 and add two massive points to his account on the year. The team used an early pit stop, allowing Ricciardo to undercut some of his competitors on the track, particularly the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Following the race, the driver talked about the “step forward” on his side of the garage.

“It was a tough race and I think we were a bit more on the [defense], so it took a lot of concentration and effort,” said Ricciardo in the team’s post-race report. “I had a good start on the outside and was looking good, but then I lost a couple of positions as there was no more room and I had to go wide.

“Once we settled after the start of the race, I think we did well; the team did a good job with the strategy to secure the position over the Alpines, and then I feel like I drove a good defence against Fernando [Alonso] and then Pierre [Gasly] in the last stint. We made a nice step from Barcelona, and it’s been a better weekend, so I’m happy to bring home some points. Now we’ll try to make another good step forward for Silverstone and then maybe that puts us in another fight for points.”

The finish comes at a time the Australian driver badly needed a result like this finish. The week of the Australian Grand Prix began with renewed questions about Ricciardo’s future in the sport. Between Dr. Helmut Marko outlining how Red Bull shareholders might want to see a younger driver in the seat — cue the camera pan to Liam Lawson — and noted F1 journalist Joe Saward speculating that Lawson might be in the seat before summer gives way to autumn, to say Ricciardo was under pressure would be an understatement.

The VCARB driver noted that pressure on Thursday, outlining how his “performance” and not his trademark smile would be the reason he kept his seat on the grid.

Sunday, following yet another prediction from him, Ricciardo delivered the kind of performance he needed.

He might want to make some more predictions.

Daniel Ricciardo makes emphatic declaration heading into Austrian Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,makes,emphatic,declaration,heading,into,austrian,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 29, 2024 By: admin

A year ago at the Mexico City Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo made a prediction that might have seen Joe Namath smile.

Is the Australian driver about to deliver a repeat performance at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix?

Following the Friday practice sessions at the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix Ricciardo emphatically declared that he had a “top ten” car heading into qualifying. Ricciardo finished sixth on the timing sheets in practice in Mexico City, ahead of Lewis Hamilton for example, and believed he was primed for a strong performance.

He delivered that performance on Saturday in Mexico City, putting his AlphaTauri on the second row alongside former Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen. Ricciardo finished the job the next day with a seventh-place finish, which was his best result following his shocking mid-season return to the grid.

Speaking Saturday at Red Bull Ring in the aftermath of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, Ricciardo made a similar statement.

“We knew that it would have been hard to get into the points in the Sprint, but it was important to race and learn for tomorrow,” said Ricciardo in Visa Cash App RB F1 Team’s post-qualifying report. “There are some positives from the battles we had this morning and the way the car responded was not too bad.

“Of course, it’s frustrating to miss out on Q3 by just a few milliseconds this afternoon, but at the same time, it’s a more positive one as I think we made some progress since yesterday and it’s something we have to be proud of. I think we still need to find something a little bit extra for tomorrow but today’s qualifying put us in a much better position for the race. It’s going to be a longer one with pit stops and [tire] differences, so there’s no reason to believe we can’t be a top ten car tomorrow.”

As noted by the driver while he did not advance into Q3, he missed out on the final spot in the third segment of qualifying by just 0.015 seconds, as Esteban Ocon snatched P10 from Ricciardo’s grasp.

Still, the Australian driver remains confident.

That confidence and optimism comes as Ricciardo faces renewed speculation about his future at the team. The driver acknowledged those questions earlier in the week, noting that his “performance” — not his trademark “smile” — will determine his fate.

Backing up his confidence tomorrow will bolster his case.

Daniel Ricciardo remaining ‘optimistic’ after slow start to his Austrian Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,remaining,optimistic,after,slow,start,to,his,austrian,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 28, 2024 By: admin

Friday was not the easiest of days for Daniel Ricciardo as the 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix got underway.

But despite the early struggles, one of F1’s main attractions is staying upbeat.

Ricciardo posted the 16th-fastest time in the single practice of the week, and could not improve on that position in Friday’s F1 Sprint Qualifying session. The Visa Cash App RB F1 Team driver finished 16th, leading to his elimination in SQ1.

Perhaps adding to the frustration? The fact that Ricciardo missed out on a spot in SQ2 by less than three-hundredths of a second, to teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

But in his post-session comments, Ricciardo remained positive.

“It’s a short lap here, so it’s always going to be tricky. We changed quite a lot from FP1, and we’re still trying to learn about the package, but obviously, it’s frustrating when you miss out by a small bit,” said the driver in VCARB’s post-session media report. “The second lap of the Sprint-Quali was definitely better than the first one, but we still need to finetune some things. I do think we made the right changes, but maybe we need to balance it better. We’ll try to use the Sprint to understand the car always more, so I’m staying optimistic.”

Ricciardo’s optimism comes as there is increased speculation about his position with the team, not just for the 2025 season but perhaps the rest of this season. Red Bull Senior Advisor Dr. Helmut Marko kicked that speculation off ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix earlier this week, noting that there is perhaps some pressure from shareholders to give a younger driver — Liam Lawson — a seat at VCARB.

That speculation kicked into overdrive when noted F1 journalist Joe Saward surmised on social media that Lawson could be in that seat as early as this summer.

With the usual caveats that every rumor regarding driver movement in F1 needs to be given context and taken with a healthy grain of salt or two, Ricciardo admitted during Thursday’s media day that he needs to improve his performance.

“I said I really do enjoy being back in the [Red Bull] family,” said Ricciardo to the assembled media on Thursday. “I weirdly do enjoy sometimes a little bit of the pokes from Helmut because I think it also could be a way to get me a little bit fired up and try to get the best out of me.”

Still, Ricciardo was clear about what he needs to do to secure his future.

“It’s the on-track stuff so I’ve obviously got a good opportunity, I say until the summer break,” continued Ricciardo. “I don’t think that’s a deadline but obviously that’s what you look at for the first half of the season. So I try to do what I can and obviously help my cause.”

Friday also saw the second FIA Press Conference ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, with VCARB CEO Peter Bayer addressing Ricciardo’s performance to date, as well as the rumors regarding Lawson.

“Well, [Ricciardo] certainly has helped us tremendously. Looking back last year when he joined the team, he brought a whole new energy and spirit into the team. And he has been extremely helpful in supporting Yuki. Yuki has just stated that very recently, actually, that he still keeps learning from Daniel,” began Bayer. “And it’s part of our job, also as a mission from the shareholders, to develop drivers. And that’s what we currently do. But certainly, as Christian said, this is about performance.

“We do luckily have a couple of options with the junior [program], but we’re also not in a hurry to take a decision for next year’s line-up. We’ve confirmed Yuki, which was very important for us. And the focus currently, honestly, as you can tell, is on the car and to go into the summer break and have a quiet discussion.”

Bayer — as well as Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner — was pressed on the driver lineup by the brilliant Luke Smith of The Athletic. For Horner, he outlined how any decisions will be first addressed in-house, but did offer that like everything in F1, the lineup at VCARB is “fluid.”

“I think anything regarding drivers is going to be dealt with in-house before we talk to the media about it. They’re all, as I say, Red Bull racing drivers and every Red Bull driver knows that there’s always a pressure, that there’s always a scrutiny,” described Horner. “But, you know, Daniel is in the seat and it’s down to him to make the most of that. And then, it’s always, as we see in Formula 1, things are always fluid.”

As for Bayer, he echoed Horner’s thoughts.

“Perhaps just to add on what Christian perfectly summarised, Liam is part of the team, he’s our test driver, he’s in the simulator,” added Bayer. “As most of you know, he’ll be in the [Testing of Previous Car session]. We do our job to develop young drivers, but the decision on the second seat will be taken quietly and we’re not in a hurry.”

VCARB and Red Bull might not be in a hurry to solidify their lineup for 2025 — and make a decision on Ricciardo’s future — but the driver remains under mounting pressure to improve his form.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Daniel Ricciardo and VCARB licking their wounds after ‘poor weekend’ f,spanish,grand,prix,daniel,ricciardo,and,vcarb,licking,their,wounds,after,poor,weekend,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 23, 2024 By: admin

As far as weekends go, this was one to forget for Daniel Ricciardo and the entire Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.

While VCARB arrived at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hopeful that a series of upgrades to the RB01 would unlock additional performance, from the opening laps of FP1 it was clear that they would be on the back foot. That continued into qualifying — which saw Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda eliminated in Q1 — and extended into the race itself. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda finished outside the points, leaving VCARB to lick their wounds after their first points-less weekend since the Chinese Grand Prix back in April.

Team Principal Laurent Mekies was blunt in his assessment.

“We came here with high hopes for the upgrades that everyone back in the factory has worked so hard to design and produce as part of our aggressive development strategy, began Mekies in the team’s post-race report. “Unfortunately, right from the start of Free Practice we were lacking pace in every session.

“There is no point denying this was a poor weekend for us and although the gaps were very small, we’re not going to make excuses for the fact we just weren’t competitive,” continued the VCARB boss. “Given our starting positions, it would have required some unusual circumstances – rain, a safety car – but the race was pretty linear and while both drivers did their best, we leave Spain with nothing to show for our efforts.”

Tsunoda kept his assessment short and to the point.

“It was a tough race, in which I struggled. The handling of the car was definitely not easy, and I did not feel as comfortable as I normally do,” described Tsunoda. “Something wasn’t quite right, and we’ll analyse everything that happened to understand what did not work well and come back stronger in Austria.”

Ricciardo, often the optimistic one in the team’s garage, did his best to put a positive spin on things. The Australian driver managed to highlight some bright spots on a dismal day in Barcelona.

“It’s obviously disappointing finishing in P15, but I’m happy with my race and how we managed it as a team with the two stops. I think yesterday I just missed a touch in qualifying, but honestly, today I feel like I [maximized] it with a good race,” described Ricciardo. “We managed the [tires] and pushed when we needed to, so unfortunately, I think we just didn’t have more to show this weekend. There’s certainly lots to learn from weekends like this.

“We take a few little positives and a few more things to work on because we seem to be missing something with the new package. It’s a quick turnaround, so we’ll work on it tonight, trying to understand more in preparation for Austria next week.”

The VCARB boss concluded with a bit of a challenge to the team.

“Now, our whole group faces a stern test to try and make some progress in the very few days available until we are back on track at the Red Bull Ring,” said Mekies. “It’s a very long season, so there are bound to be some tough weekends. We just have to put this one behind us, we must not get downhearted but instead, look ahead and focus on fighting back immediately in a few days’ time in Austria.”

Thankfully for the team, they will not have too much time to lick those wounds, as Red Bull Ring awaits.

Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo remaining ‘positive’ despite hard Saturday at Spanish GP yuki,tsunoda,and,daniel,ricciardo,remaining,positive,despite,hard,saturday,at,spanish,gp,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 22, 2024 By: admin

Visa Cash App RB F1 Team has come away with points in four straight races, dating back to the Miami Grand Prix. That weekend saw both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda finish in the points in the F1 Sprint Race — a result Ricciardo enjoyed deep into the afternoon in Miami, even after his struggles in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix — and kicked off a string of good results for the team, including Ricciardo’s P8 in the Canadian Grand Prix.

That streak appears headed for an end at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Like many teams, VCARB brought a series of upgrades to Barcelona, but those upgrades have yet to materialize into results on the track. After a Friday that saw both drivers at the back of the field, the team hoped the data would uncover some answers for improved lap times on Saturday.

No such luck. Both Ricciardo and Tsunoda were eliminated in Q1, and they will start alongside each other in the ninth row on Sunday, with Tsunoda in P17 and Ricciardo in P18.

Despite that result, both drivers remained positive in their post-qualifying comments.

“We’ve been struggling with pace this weekend and tried multiple things to try and improve, and in the end, I felt better in qualifying than in Free Practice. At least I’m happy with my lap and feel like I was able to maximise the current package,” said Tsunoda. “The last races have been going well and even if it’s a shame, I think it’s important that we’re facing this more difficult moment together as a team. It’s a good opportunity to learn from our struggles and grow as a team. The most important thing is to remain positive, and we certainly will.”

While the lap times were not there for Ricciardo, he still believes that the team made progress overnight with the setup.

“It’s a tricky weekend. We have a lot of new parts on the car, and we still need to understand the best way to make them work,” began Ricciardo. “After yesterday, when we were still finding a bit of balance, we made pretty big changes overnight and today in qualifying the car felt much more together.

“We made progress in terms of feeling and balance, but unfortunately, we’re still in a tough spot in terms of the stopwatch. Being out of Q1 with both cars, especially using three sets of soft each, shows that at the moment, we don’t have the pace,” continued the VCARB driver. “There’s still more to find and we’ll keep chipping away. Tomorrow is going to come around quick, but we have a few races ahead of us with similar track characteristics, so we obviously need to figure out together the things we’re missing.”

Jody Egginton, the team’s Technical Director, praised both drivers for their feedback to the team. While VCARB may not be happy with the results at the moment, Egginton sounded hopeful that this weekend has laid the groundwork for further progress over the rest of the year.

“In terms of car balance, there has been some improvement,” began Egginton. “This alone has not been enough, so clearly, we have a lot of homework to do tonight, but also ahead of Austria, to extract more from the car and a large part of this work will be [analyzing] in detail the aero data we have gathered here in Barcelona.

“On the flip side, both drivers have done a good job of supporting the engineering team with feedback on the numerous test items we have evaluated here and also extracting the maximum from the cars we have been able to provide them with, so we have plenty of data to work with to make the necessary steps forward.”

Daniel Ricciardo anticipating ‘competitive’ F1 Spanish Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,anticipating,competitive,f,spanish,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 18, 2024 By: admin

Through nine race weekends this Formula 1 season, the team at Visa Cash App RB F1 Team have placed themselves near the front of the midfield. VCARB currently sits sixth in the F1 Constructors’ Championship standings with 28 points, 21 points ahead of seventh-place Haas. As the grid heads to Barcelona, there are thoughts that VCARB could perhaps throw a scare into Aston Martin, and make a play for fifth in the standings by the time the season is over.

However, VCARB is certainly expecting a tough fight at the Spanish Grand Prix, thanks to the track in Barcelona. For years the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was used for pre-season testing, thanks to its long straights and mix of corners.

As such, many teams are bringing upgrades to the Spanish Grand Prix, which could make for a “competitive” weekend.

“Barcelona is always a track where everyone brings updates, so I think it’s going to be a really competitive weekend. Let’s see what everyone brings. I’m excited to drive it with the faster last sector that they changed for last year,” said Daniel Ricciardo in the team’s media preview. “I’m looking forward to getting back on that track. Normally, it’s quite familiar but we didn’t do any testing there this year, so should be fun.

“I’m looking forward to keeping this run going, trying to get some more Q3 appearances and points finishes. I’ve been waiting a while, but I like to think it’s the start of where my season continues to progress and show performances like I did in Montreal,” added Ricciardo. “Really looking forward to it and excited to get the European leg started!”

Yuki Tsunoda, who has scored 19 of VCARB’s points this season, is hoping to rebound after a disappointing Canadian Grand Prix. VCARB was in the running for a double-points finish, but a spin by Tsunoda in the late stages dropped him out of contention.

“Even though the race in Montreal didn’t go the way I wanted, and the weekend as a whole was a bit up and down, it was positive that we managed to turn things around from Free Practice to qualifying, from one extreme to another. It showed that, as a team, we know how to adapt, and we came back well to get to Q3 once again,” said Tsunoda. “This definitely gives me lots of confidence that we know how to turn things around and make them work!”

Tsunoda believes that getting a good feel for the team’s challenger early in the week will bre critical for success at the Spanish Grand Prix.

“Now it’s time for Barcelona, which is a tough test for the car, but so far this season the VCARB 01 seems to perform well at all tracks, so I have no concerns on the performance side. As for the track itself, Sector 1 and Sector 3 are different animals and you can’t really have a car that is well-balanced in both of them, so you need to compromise, but we are not worried about that,” described Tsunoda. “The key will be to get a good understanding of how our package is working at this track as soon as possible during Free Practice and then get the most out of it. It’s another track where overtaking is difficult so qualifying will again be very important.

“I seem to be performing quite well in quali in recent races, maybe it’s the way I build up to it over Free Practice and it’s also linked to controlling my emotions, managing myself better and doing it consistently,” continued Tsunoda. “That makes your driving and feedback better and gives me extra confidence, so I’m looking forward to it.”

As noted, many teams are bringing upgrades to Barcelona.

And VCARB is one of those teams.

“With regards to our approach to the race, recent results have been reasonable and we have been scoring points, began Jody Egginton, the team’s Technical Director. “However, the midfield battle is incredibly tight and we are under no illusion that we must deliver well-executed events to be towards the front of this group with a chance of scoring points. So, like for any other Grand Prix, there have been intensive preparations in the simulator and offline tools to prepare for this event.

“A significant amount of work was put in by Faenza and Bicester to prepare and deliver an aerodynamic update consisting of a floor, bodywork and rear wing for both cars, to provide a measurable performance benefit,” continued Egginton. “As a result of having this update, the Friday sessions will be especially busy, in order to gather and process as much data as possible and get ready for Saturday onwards.”