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Daniel Ricciardo believes that Red Bull struggled against Williams and other rivals at the British Grand Prix. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda after the race, the Australian driver was unable to understand the pace deficit of their car at the Silverstone Circuit.
Daniel Ricciardo had a pretty underwhelming race, finishing no higher than 13th after starting in the fifteenth spot on the grid. His car was being worked upon before he made it to the grid, where everything including the engine, turbo, energy recovery system, and gearbox were changed. The Australian and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda lacked pace against their rivals like Haas and Williams. The Japanese driver was overtaken by Alex Albon who carried a damaged floor throughout the race. However, the 22 year old was able to collect a point in the race, as a result of starting at a better qualifying position.
Ricciardo believes there must have been damage on their car to be eight-tenths of a second slower than their Williams rival Logan Sargeant, who was able to pull away. Baffled by the car's sudden drop in pace despite feeling comfortable behind the wheel, the 34-year-old admitted that the RB updates backfired. He believes that tracks with characteristics like Silverstone have exposed the weakness of their car.
Asked by Sportskeeda if his pace was compromised in the race, Daniel Ricciardo said,
“Yes. Compromise is a polite way of saying it. Hopefully there's a big hole in my car that I haven't yet seen and that is the reason why we're really slow. But yeah, we honestly just, as a team for sure, we struggle here. You know, like looking at the Williams at the end on that stint. And Sargeant pulled away from me and I believe Albon came and passed to Tsunoda. So yes, Yuki got a point, he did well but I think as a team we weren't very competitive this weekend. I certainly struggled more in the race. I'm still not completely sure why you know there was moments my engineer was telling me, I think I was about eight tenths off and I was quite surprised to hear that. Because I felt like I just crossed the line and did a good lap. So yeah a little bit probably lost in terms of where that pace lies.”
Daniel Ricciardo elaborated on his race by saying:
“I felt like definitely moments where there was mixed conditions there was a few laps where I was yeah, I didn't put in maybe the best handful of laps in those mixed conditions. But then let's say fast -forwarding to the end or even the start where it was dry. Yeah, struggled for, for sure, grip and balance, but I think these circuits have exposed us a little bit and the other teams have made some good updates and that's also reality. And why I struggled more than, I would say for the most part, more than Yuki today, yeah, try and have a look. But as always, I make notes during the race and share them with the team now and try to try to understand why I felt what I felt.”
Daniel Ricciardo explains radio call asking for more ‘load’ during the British GP
Daniel Ricciardo admits complaining about load levels to his engineer Pierre Hamlin during the race. Speaking to Sportskeeda after the race, he explained that due to the dropping lap time, he kept inquiring about the balance and load levels. He felt that they could not optimize his car or setups and could have missed a few things on the technical side.
Asked if the radio message to Hamlin indicated that he was struggling with load levels, Daniel Ricciardo explained:
“Yeah so I remember on kind of a little bit where I was struggling with the lap time, trying to find it, I think my engineer asked me what am I missing? What do I need? And I felt like yeah, I was saying like the balance and stuff was actually okay just for like, we're just lacking load, you know? So that's why when I heard the lap times of the others, I was quite confused 'cause I said I did the lap and the lap felt pretty clean, a few little things, but felt decent.”
“Like I was close to the potential of the car and that's when I was like I don't really have an answer right now where this lap time is. So yeah, obviously downforce is king. But I think there's still things we missed today or my assumption is we missed some things just with our car and optimising it. So yeah we have to looking forward make everything better. But right now with what we have try to probably still with set up. There's maybe a couple things myself and the team up maybe not quite grasping. So keep at it.”
Daniel Ricciardo has currently scored 11 points whereas his teammate Yuki Tsunoda has managed to score 20 points. However, RB have just about managed to hang on to their sixth place in the constructors title with 31 points.
Their rivals Haas have performed well in the last two races where Nico Hulkenberg claimed a fifth place in Austria and a sixth in Silverstone, placing the team seventh with a total of 27 points. Even though RB made changes to their vehicle that made it perform well in Canada and Austria, Haas, one of their competitors, introduced a single improvement that has allowed them to regularly finish in the top 10.
