F1 News: Daniel Ricciardo Disappointed With RB Upgrades - 'Haven't Perfected It Right Now'

Daniel Ricciardo expresses disappointment with RB's car upgrades after underperforming in qualifiers at the Spanish Grand Prix despite adjustments made to the car's setup and aerodynamics.

Jun 7, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; RB driver driver Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) in the pit lane during the practice session at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

At the recent Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, expectations were high for RB's Daniel Ricciardo following a batch of car upgrades based on promising results at the preceding race in Canada. However, the weekend's outcome painted a different picture—with Ricciardo and his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, underperforming during qualifying, securing 18th and 17th positions respectively.

The Australian driver arrived optimistic, satisfied by the anticipated performance improvements. However, despite the team's efforts to tweak the car’s setup after facing balance issues during practice, Ricciardo described the overall pace as insufficient. Even after deploying three sets of tires in the first qualifying session—a tactic that usually boosts performance—the expected improvement didn't materialize.

Reflecting on the changes made overnight, Ricciardo noted:

"[Friday] felt like we were still trying to fight it a little bit so we did make some bigger changes overnight. So yeah, look, we probably haven't perfected it right now and maybe that's the encouraging thing. But I feel like we did make a good job overnight to get the car in a better place. So from a feeling, it felt better today. I had more comfort and confidence in it but unfortunately on this thing, the stopwatch, we're still where we were.”

Ricciardo highlighted the dichotomy between the car's feel and its performance, stating,

“I actually didn't think the car felt too bad in quali. Of course, there are some corners where you feel it should be flat there or whatever, so you know you may be still missing a bit of load. But in general, it was I felt much better than [Friday], so to still be back where we are I think that's still a bit more defined, I guess, so yeah I don't know.”

Speaking about the aerodynamic adjustments made, particularly with the floor of the car—a crucial component affecting the vehicle’s aerodynamics and load—Ricciardo seemed to struggle with the currently unmet potential.

”I'd like to think there's still a bit more on the package to figure out,”** he said.

The emotion was tangible when Ricciardo discussed his reaction to the qualifying results. “When Pierre told me P18, I didn't really have anything to say on the radio because I was honestly quite surprised. I knew we're not going to be at P10, but I honestly thought that would have been good enough for Q2.”

Ricciardo’s predicament highlights a broader challenge in F1 racing: the continuous fluctuation and variability in performance despite seemingly progressive technical upgrades. His teammate Tsunoda, experiencing similar issues, also hinted at an unexpectedly neutral response to the car’s performance in qualifying, as noted by Ricciardo:

"I haven't spoken to Yuki yet but I don't think he was too unhappy probably with how the car felt.”

As for the future, Ricciardo remains optimistic yet realistic about the path ahead, poised to continue refining and adapting the car's capabilities. The racer summed up his forward-looking perspective: “But that's something obviously we'll keep doing. On the flip side, I do feel like [Friday] we were much more out of balance and actually today in quali the car felt much more together.”

It's one thing to bring upgrades, but it's another thing to understand how to extract performance from them. RB will use this weekend to extract data from their cars, and will likely come back stronger in Austria.