Every week in the past on the Austrian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo delivered a daring assertion regardless of lacking out on the third section of qualifying. Ricciardo outlined how the RB01 was a “high ten” automobile regardless of his elimination in Q2, and he backed up that proclamation with a factors end at Red Bull Ring.
There have been no related proclamations from Ricciardo following Saturday’s qualifying session on the British Grand Prix.
Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda have been each eradicated in Q2, with Tsunoda set to start out thirteenth in the principle occasion Sunday, and Ricciardo behind him in fifteenth. To hear the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team driver inform it, he was not “completely happy” with how issues unfolded on Saturday at Silverstone.
“I’m not significantly proud of at present’s qualifying; it wasn’t a very good session, and that is one thing we have to determine,” mentioned Ricciardo. “Both runs in Q2 didn’t go as anticipated, and we struggled to get the lap in, main me to do some overtaking within the final nook, which is one thing I hate when folks do it to me.
“I began my final push lap a few seconds behind Zhou [Guanyu], and with the soiled air, you’re by no means going to get a very good lap. The final three weekends haven’t been straightforward, however we discovered a approach to make it work,” added Ricciardo. “Coming into Silverstone with the identical struggles has additionally added to at present’s frustrations as a result of we don’t have the luxurious to have the ability to get issues flawed. We’ll deal with all we want throughout tonight’s debrief and look forward on the race.”
While Ricciardo was pissed off with how Saturday performed out, his teammate was a bit extra happy with the session.
“I’m proud of how we dealt with at present; the staff and I labored effectively collectively and communicated throughout qualifying to adapt to the altering climate circumstances,” described Tsunoda. “We knew it might be troublesome coming into quali as a result of we’ve been missing tempo all through Free Practice, and it’s a disgrace we haven’t been in a position to fairly flip it round as a lot as we’d’ve appreciated to, however the area is tight, and something can occur.
“We’re combating tempo within the high-speed corners at this monitor, which has similarities to final week, however we’ll work onerous to maximise our efficiency tomorrow. We had good tempo within the moist and we’ll adapt based mostly on the climate circumstances and talk, that’s the important thing.”
VCARB Technical Director Jody Egginton famous that the staff won’t have put Ricciardo in the most effective place throughout Q2, however that there’s potential for the staff on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t put Daniel in adequate circumstances for his ultimate run in Q2 which obtained him caught up in quite a lot of site visitors, altering his place for tomorrow,” mentioned Egginton. “We discover ourselves barely again from the place we need to be, however laps time deltas to the automobiles round us are small and the staff is pushing onerous to extract all the things from the automobile.”
Salvaging one thing on Sunday could possibly be important for the staff of their battle with Haas within the F1 Constructors’ Championship. VCARB at the moment sits in sixth place within the standings, 11 factors away from Haas. But with Nico Hülkenberg beginning sixth on Sunday Haas has great potential to chop into that lead. If Riccardo and/or Tsunoda can discover a approach to forge into the factors, it might be a large step for the staff.
And it might maybe ease among the frustration Ricciardo is feeling this Saturday at Silverstone.
