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” automotive regardless of his elimination in Q2, and he backed up that proclamation with a factors end at Pink 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 begin thirteenth in the primary occasion Sunday, and Ricciardo behind him in fifteenth. To listen to the Visa Money App RB F1 Group driver inform it, he was not “joyful” with how issues unfolded on Saturday at Silverstone.
“I’m not significantly proud of at the moment’s qualifying; it wasn’t a very good session, and that is one thing we have to work out,” mentioned Ricciardo. “Each 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 technique to make it work,” added Ricciardo. “Coming into Silverstone with the identical struggles has additionally added to at the moment’s frustrations as a result of we don’t have the posh to have the ability to get issues fallacious. We’ll deal with all we’d like throughout tonight’s debrief and look forward on the race.”
Whereas Ricciardo was annoyed with how Saturday performed out, his teammate was a bit extra happy with the session.
“I’m proud of how we dealt with at the moment; the group and I labored effectively collectively and communicated throughout qualifying to adapt to the altering climate situations,” described Tsunoda. “We knew it might be troublesome coming into quali as a result of we’ve been missing tempo all through Free Observe, and it’s a disgrace we haven’t been in a position to fairly flip it round as a lot as we’d’ve preferred to, however the area is tight, and something can occur.
“We’re scuffling with tempo within the high-speed corners at this observe, which is analogous 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 situations and talk, that’s the important thing.”
VCARB Technical Director Jody Egginton famous that the group won’t have put Ricciardo in the most effective place throughout Q2, however that there’s potential for the group on Sunday.
“Sadly, we didn’t put Daniel in adequate situations for his ultimate run in Q2 which bought him caught up in a number of site visitors, altering his place for tomorrow,” mentioned Egginton. “We discover ourselves barely again from the place we wish to be, however laps time deltas to the automobiles round us are small and the group is pushing onerous to extract every part from the automotive.”
Salvaging one thing on Sunday may very well be essential for the group of their struggle with Haas within the F1 Constructors’ Championship. VCARB presently sits in sixth place within the standings, 11 factors away from Haas. However with Nico Hülkenberg beginning sixth on Sunday Haas has large potential to chop into that lead. If Riccardo and/or Tsunoda can discover a technique to forge into the factors, it might be a large step for the group.
And it might maybe ease a number of the frustration Ricciardo is feeling this Saturday at Silverstone.
