Tag: Daniel Ricciardo

RB’s Mekies keeping faith in Ricciardo

RB team principal Laurent Mekies has been seeing clear improvements from Daniel Ricciardo over the past two races despite another frustrating outing for the Australian in the Japanese Grand Prix. Ricciardo has yet to score a point this season and …

RB team principal Laurent Mekies has been seeing clear improvements from Daniel Ricciardo over the past two races despite another frustrating outing for the Australian in the Japanese Grand Prix.

Ricciardo has yet to score a point this season and retired on the opening lap of the race at Suzuka when he was involved in a collision with Alex Albon. Yuki Tsunoda qualified 10th and scored the final point at his home race, but the fact Ricciardo had been one place behind his teammate and also showed strong performance over a race distance in Australia is giving Mekies (pictured at left, above, with Ricciardo) confidence.

“Things are improving with Daniel a lot, already from Australia,” Mekies told SpeedCity Broadcasting. “Even though he did a race from the back — a very frustrating race from the back — but we’ve seen on his pace that the pace was there, so it gave us great confidence. [In qualifying] he was obviously right there as well for the top 10 together with Yuki, so it is a positive.

“Of course no driver wants to lose time in the car, and we know that every second counts and matters … but I’m sure he will be 100% in China. These sort of things happen. He has been around long enough to know that what matters is the speed, and he has the speed.”

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Television cameras regularly cut to reserve driver Liam Lawson after action involving Ricciardo at Suzuka, but Mekies doesn’t believe the presence of Lawson is having a negative impact on the race drivers.

“There is always pressure, at this level, for an F1 driver,” he said. “The whole field is the same up and down the grid — there will be huge pressure. It doesn’t matter so much if the reserve driver is here or not. We have a very good reserve driver with Liam — he has shown last year how impressively he could step in — but I really don’t think it’s adding any pressure on the guys.

“The highest pressure is the one they put on themselves to perform at the highest level at all times, and that’s probably what is driving them most.”

Ricciardo escapes penalty after Albon clash

Daniel Ricciardo says he was trying to leave space for a car even though he didn’t see Alex Albon as the pair crashed heavily at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix. Albon was attempting to pull alongside Ricciardo out of Turn 2 on the opening lap …

Daniel Ricciardo says he was trying to leave space for a car even though he didn’t see Alex Albon as the pair crashed heavily at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Albon was attempting to pull alongside Ricciardo out of Turn 2 on the opening lap of the race, but the Australian — starting on mediums and with a pace disadvantage to those on softs — had Lance Stroll to his left. With Ricciardo moving towards the outside of the track before the left-handed Turn 3, Albon tried to back out of the move but his left front made contact with Ricciardo’s right rear. Both cars hit the tire wall heavily, causing a red flag.

“We definitely got gobbled up on that medium,” Ricciardo said. “It was weird because the cars in front of us look like they got off the line well. I guess [George] Russell — and pretty sure everyone in front — was on the medium. So it just looks like Yuki [Tsunoda] and I didn’t have the grip that we anticipated.

“As soon as we launched, I could see [Valtteri] Bottas and [Nico] Hulkenberg just split us and go around. Then into Turn 1, I was in the middle, I think with Yuki and an Alpine sling by. Turn 2 I thought, ‘All right, let’s just settle’ and I soon as I got on the throttle, I was still struggling.

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“Then I think Stroll was on my outside, so I was trying to hold him off. Then I guess as I started to come back for Turn 3, Albon’s there. I watched his onboard, and I don’t even know if he wanted to be there, but his traction was so much better on the soft that he was like, ‘Well, there’s space,’ until there wasn’t, so I didn’t see him.

“But honestly, I always assume maybe someone is there — it’s lap 1 so I never try to use the full width of the track and be completely ignorant. But yeah, I guess there was obviously not enough room.

“All things considered, if we could wind back the clock an hour, I would start on the soft. But for the record, I wanted to be on the medium. That’s not something I fought against. But knowing what we know now the soft would have been a lot better for us.”

The stewards investigated the collision after the race and opted to take no further action, given how many cars were a factor in the incident and the fact it was on the opening lap of the race.

“On the approach to Turn 3, the driver of Car 3 [Ricciardo] noticed Car 18 [Stroll] on his left and stated that he wanted to give that car sufficient room,” the stewards’ decision read. “He stated he then looked to the apex of Turn 3. He did not see Car 23 [Albon] on his right.

“The driver of Car 23 stated that he thought he could overtake Car 3 on the outside, into Turn 3, but then suddenly realized that Car 3 had not seen him, applied the brakes but could not avoid the contact with Car 3.

“Accordingly we determine this to be a first lap incident and decide to take no further action.

“If this incident had occurred on a subsequent lap, or without the presence of the third car (Car 18), a different determination would have been made.”

Ricciardo blocking out negativity as he stays confident of turnaround

Daniel Ricciardo feels that he is on the verge of delivering stronger performances and results because he is feeling so good behind the wheel, despite a tough Australian Grand Prix. The Australian arrived at his home race off the back of a …

Daniel Ricciardo feels that he is on the verge of delivering stronger performances and results because he is feeling so good behind the wheel, despite a tough Australian Grand Prix.

The Australian arrived at his home race off the back of a frustrating start to the year, failing to score in either of the first two races and struggling in Jeddah with his car’s handling. RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda outqualified him comfortably in Saudi Arabia and again in Melbourne — where he went on to finish an impressive seventh — while a Q1 exit limited Ricciardo to 12th, but the 34-year-old insists he’s in a good place to produce better results.

“I came into this weekend really, honestly, deep down believing we were going to have a very, very good weekend,” Ricciardo said. “And in terms of the noise, people tell me, in the media, like ‘so and so said’ and it’s the first I’ve heard. It’s obviously no disrespect to you guys.

“I know that I’m on this little process or journey at the moment, and I just need to focus on myself. If I let any of the noise in, it’s going to kind of distract me from the path I’m on. I think it’s been really good, I haven’t let any of that maybe negative stuff creep in.

“I also understand that I didn’t expect to start the season like this. Budapest last year, I drove the car a day before, and outqualified Yuki and had a really strong race with no knowledge. Having a full pre-season and all that, and all the races last year, I honestly thought that this year, we would start a lot stronger.

“There is that, which I understand not only me but a few people are wondering why. I think the important thing is that I stay on course — it’s not that my head is filled with nonsense or anything. I honestly feel good, and just unfortunately the results haven’t made me feel awesome, but deep down behind the wheel, I do feel good and excited.

“I just want to keep racing. I’m sure I’ll find a bit more in myself, and I still believe maybe we’ll find a little something on the car.”

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Ricciardo also feels that his form is likely to click at the start of a weekend and continue, rather than be the result of a long process of trying to find a bit more pace from this year’s RB.

“I hope so,” he said of a quicker turn of form. “I’m asking the team a lot of questions, and I think we will have some bits and pieces come onto the car in the next one, two races. I expect it to be a pretty quick turnaround, and before you know it, we’ll be doing great again… Nah, I kind of say that jokingly, but I do believe it. So yeah, we’ll hopefully turn it around.”

Daniel Ricciardo could be replaced by Liam Lawson after next two races

Daniel Ricciardo could be replaced by Liam Lawson if he doesn’t show improvements over the next two races in Japan and China.

[autotag]Daniel Ricciardo[/autotag]’s status at the Visa CashApp RB F1 Team is murky after three races to start the 2024 season. Ricciardo finished 13th in Bahrain, 16th in Jeddah, and 12th in Melbourne. He isn’t on the same level as his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who has beaten him two out of three times, including a seventh-place finish for points in Australia.

Now, trouble could be brewing for the Australian driver. According to the NZ Herald, Ricciardo has been given an ultimatum: Improve in the next two races in Japan and China or be replaced by Liam Lawson starting in Miami. This would be a devastating blow to his chances of climbing the ladder as a 34-year-old driver.

Lawson is the reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and the RB F1 Team, so it wouldn’t be a shocking move. Ricciardo has been fast at some moments, but the mistakes are starting to pile up. The Australian driver needs to start seeing some improvements soon. If not, Lawson could be replacing Ricciardo next to Tsunoda by Miami.

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Ricciardo angered by Tsunoda’s ‘immaturity’ after close call

Daniel Ricciardo was left angry by Yuki Tsunoda’s reaction to team orders that nearly saw the Visa Cash App RB drivers collide after the Bahrain Grand Prix. Tsunoda was unhappy that he had been told to let Ricciardo through late in the race, with …

Daniel Ricciardo was left angry by Yuki Tsunoda’s reaction to team orders that nearly saw the Visa Cash App RB drivers collide after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Tsunoda was unhappy that he had been told to let Ricciardo through late in the race, with his teammate on soft tires and Kevin Magnussen just ahead of the pair in 12th place. Ricciardo failed to make further progress, but on the cool-down lap Tsunoda locked up heavily overtaking the Australian into Turn 8, and then swerved back onto the circuit, coming extremely close to making contact with Ricciardo.

On team radio immediately after the incident, Ricciardo described Tsunoda as a “[expletive] helmet”, but then said he’d save his criticism.

“I don’t know, I came on the radio and was trying to stay cool,” Ricciardo said afterwards. “A bit of immaturity, let’s say that.”

The 34-year-old says the team had already discussed the potential for him to need to be allowed to pass Tsunoda given their difference in strategies.

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“I’m being very sensible right now, but let’s call it immaturity. He’s obviously frustrated with the team orders call. But let’s be real, this is something we talked about before the race. It was very likely I was going to use a soft at the end of the race.

“So he knew that there was a chance that I would have a pace advantage at the end and if he gets the call, then it’s going to happen.

“He’s not giving me points, we’re fighting for 13th, so at least give us the best chance to get at least one car in the points. It’s a long year and we need to make sure we’re all good, so we’ll go back, have a meeting and be very mature about it, and look forward to Jeddah.”

Ricciardo says he would have given Tsunoda the position back at the end of the race too if asked, given the lack of points on offer, but was frustrated that the Japanese driver hadn’t heeded the team order when it was first given.

“Whether I’m 13th or 14th, I don’t know if any driver cares about that but I don’t,” Ricciardo said. “So if the team said let him back by before the finish line, I would’ve done it because it means nothing to me. Unless we’re in the points, who cares?

“I think if you’re in a points position, if he’s letting me by for ninth, he’s tenth or whatever, then you maybe swap again if I can’t get eighth. But in that situation I guess it didn’t matter. So look, it’s race one of 24. Yes, there was a little bit of conflict today, but I don’t want that to set the tone. I think we talk about it now in the briefing, honestly, and hopefully once he’s calmed down, he can say, ‘OK, yeah, I should’ve moved a lap earlier.’”

Formula 1 FP1 and FP2 results: Verstappen outside top 5 both sessions

Despite Verstappen’s placings, there’s also reason to believe that Red Bull may not have turned up their engines for the first two practice sessions Thursday.

While Max Verstappen and the Red Bulls are still favored to top the grid for Formula 1’s first race in Bahrain, it was all Mercedes for Thursday’s practice sessions.

Verstappen has been all the rage since testing showed Red Bull’s prowess, but he only landed 6th in both free practice sessions in Bahrain Thursday. In the first session, former Red Bull driver and current Visa Cashapp RB driver Daniel Ricciardo topped the session with a 1:32.869, coming ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and then his own teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Here’s what FP1 classifications looked like:

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FP2 was all Mercedes. It was Lewis Hamilton who topped the charts, with his 1:30.374 coming in just 0.206 seconds faster than his teammate George Russell in second. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso kept it close in both sessions, finishing fifth in FP1 and third in FP2. The VCARB cars didn’t perform nearly as well this time around, with Ricciardo placing 12th and Tsunoda 15th:

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While some may be looking for some competition on Saturday’s race day with Verstappen not topping either chart, it may not be wise to get your hopes up. When taking a look at the telemetry data from the free practice sessions, it appears as if Red Bull (and Ferrari, for that matter) have yet to fully unleash their engine during practice.

FP3 will take place at 7:30 a.m. EST on Friday, while Q1 of qualifying will be at 11:00 a.m. The race will begin at 10:00 a.m. Saturday.

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VCARB 01 breaks cover in Las Vegas

The first car under the new Visa Cash App RB name – the VCARB 01 – has been revealed at a lavish event in Las Vegas. The former AlphaTauri team has been rebranded under the ‘Racing Bulls’ moniker this season, with Visa and Cash App joining forces as …

The first car under the new Visa Cash App RB name – the VCARB 01 – has been revealed at a lavish event in Las Vegas.

The former AlphaTauri team has been rebranded under the ‘Racing Bulls’ moniker this season, with Visa and Cash App joining forces as title partners. Due to Visa’s partnerships with the NFL and the Super Bowl being held in Las Vegas on Sunday, the team launch took place on Thursday night on the iconic Strip.

The VCARB 01 showcases the team’s new identity, that has aspects of the former Toro Rosso colors due to the blue and silver elements, but white and red additions stand out in the design.

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In contrast to Alpine’s launch a day earlier, the team did not offer too much detail in terms of the technical developments made to the car over the winter, although aspects of the all-conquering Red Bull design can be seen in the sidepods. VCARB is taking a number of components from its parent team where permitted in the regulations.

Drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda were joined by the team’s CEO Peter Bayer and new team principal Laurent Mekies who replaced Franz Tost at the end of last season. Also present was the team’s F1 Academy driver Amna Al-Qubaisi, while F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali also made an appearance.

While the team name has not been universally welcomed, Ricciardo says fans are overlooking the importance of sponsors to a team.

“Let me say this, people have to understand one thing,” Ricciardo told RACER. “They say ‘Ah, the name, what is that? Why would you call it that?’ All these things. It’s like, you understand what partners do, right? They pay money, to support the team, to help us go forward, and therefore they can call it whatever they want! Quite frankly, their support is awesome and I love it! So I’m totally fine with the name, I love it. That’s how it works!”

In its former guise of AlphaTauri, the team finished eighth in the constructors’ championship last season, recovering from a slow start that saw it score just five points in the opening 17 rounds to finish strongly and end up with 25 points in total, three adrift of Williams in seventh place.

2024 Las Vegas race time ‘does not have my vote’ – Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo says the timings at the Las Vegas Grand Prix will need to be brought forward in 2024 after learning it’s the first race in a triple-header. This weekend’s inaugural race on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit saw qualifying take place at …

Daniel Ricciardo says the timings at the Las Vegas Grand Prix will need to be brought forward in 2024 after learning it’s the first race in a triple-header.

This weekend’s inaugural race on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit saw qualifying take place at midnight, while FP2 should have been at the same time but was delayed until 2:30am. The race itself started at 10pm and with a major timezone shift for Abu Dhabi next weekend required, Ricciardo says the schedule can’t be repeated after finding out it will be followed by races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in 2024.

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“I think (the race lived up to expectations),” Ricciardo said. “I think after Thursday, after that late session, I felt like I’d been – all of us had been – delirious. I don’t know if this is the word but hallucinogenic! But it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since then.

“The paddock is huge. It has a bit of atmosphere. I think it’s been alright. The only two things I would critique would be the asphalt, need to get some more grip out of it, and just the start times, bring them earlier and that would be a little smoother. I don’t think there’s a race after (Vegas next year), I think it’s a weekend off.”

Informed that it’s actually the first race of a triple-header, Ricciardo was surprised: “What!? No way. Alright. That does not have my vote. And now knowing that, they need to bring it forward, because we’ll be wrecked, especially at the end of the season. I’ve done six races and even I feel it. Hopefully they can make something work there.”

Despite there being reservations about the circuit layout ahead of the race too, Ricciardo believes it works well as a racetrack but could be improved in places with better grip to allow drivers to attack it more.

“Some parts are good. The biggest thing was just the level of grip. That’s what kind of makes Saudi quite a good circuit to drive. Yes, it’s fast and a street circuit, but you can throw the car in. Here you feel like you’re on top of the surface. You feel like you’re kind of at F2 level of grip.

“On one hand people would say that’s good, you have to wrestle the car, but it’s not a feeling you get a lot of feedback from. I think if the grip was higher it would be more enjoyable. Turn 3 I think would be close to flat out, that would be a pretty serious corner. It’s pretty bumpy. I got porpoising which I haven’t had since last year. Not a disaster.”

Daniel Ricciardo questions the track safety for Formula 1 in Las Vegas

Daniel Ricciardo questions the safety of the track in Las Vegas following a disastrous FP1 on Friday. Find out what Ricciardo had to say!

It has been well-documented that Formula 1’s presence in Las Vegas has not been the most well-received event. Before the weekend, local residents were not pleased about the disruptions; however, it has now translated to the race track itself. Carlos Sainz’s incident with the drain cover made people question the safety of the track in Las Vegas.

One of those people is Alpha Tauri driver [autotag]Daniel Ricciardo[/autotag]. Following FP2 on Friday morning, Ricciardo was asked whether Formula 1 has prioritized the “show” over track safety and gave a very interesting answer in return.

“It’s a fair question,” Ricciardo said. “We’re like, yeah it’s a late day, but two cars got ruined. Along with that there is a financial thing there for the teams, which is a big issue for them, but then you brought up the biggest issue which is safety.”

“So fortunately [Carlos Sainz] is OK, but those things could be greater — when I say greater I mean bigger consequences. I don’t know, I think it’s easy to say we did opening ceremonies and focused on other things and did they do their due diligence on the track? But with everything that happened today, you could ask some questions like did they do enough? That one for sure I can’t sidestep, that is a safety concern, and we’re here late but the safety one is something hopefully they will take pretty seriously.”

The safety of the drivers, crew members, and fans should be the top priority. On Thursday night, that was an issue that can’t happen again. Formula 1 will look to move forward with a new day as the sport is ready to hit the track for third practice and qualifying on Friday night.

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Ricciardo says running Vegas practice without fans was least-worst option

Daniel Ricciardo says it was the right decision to run a delayed FP2 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, even though fans were told to leave the circuit before it started. However, he added that questions regarding the circuit’s safety are justified after …

Daniel Ricciardo says it was the right decision to run a delayed FP2 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, even though fans were told to leave the circuit before it started. However, he added that questions regarding the circuit’s safety are justified after a problematic first day for the first-time event.

Loose drain covers led to FP1 being canceled after eight minutes of track running, with Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon both sustaining heavy damage and needing to change chassis. While repairs took place, FP2 was delayed from its original starting time of midnight until 2:30am, and fans were told that they had to leave due to security staff having to clock off. Nevertheless, Ricciardo says getting the session in was important.

“I don’t know (if it’s right the session happened in front of empty grandstands),” Ricciardo said. “It was definitely late, don’t get me wrong, and you guys are pretty good for staying out here. Now that we have done a session it feels more worth it, but at 1:30am it didn’t feel worth it and it just felt like, ‘Let’s do this tomorrow.’

“But I don’t know the ins and outs of circuit availability — it’s not a conventional circuit, so it’s not like we can rock up in the morning and just go. I’m sure there are some limitations that we are at mercy to. We got it done, and I’m sure it was a longer day than everybody would have liked, but at least there was something.

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“The grandstand situation, I heard they got kicked out … that’s a bummer, yeah. If we didn’t do the FP2 it would have probably just been scrapped and we would have gone into FP3, so at least like this the fans got to watch it on TV.

“I’m trying to be positive! But it’s obviously a difficult situation and I don’t want to s**t on the sport — it’s the first time here, it’s a massive project and things unfortunately happened. I know no one wanted them to but I guess they did the best they could with what they had. I know it’s late and everyone is probably a little bit grumpy, but at least we got some running done.”

When asked if other aspects fell by the wayside due to the focus on the visuals in Las Vegas, Ricciardo replied: “It’s a fair question. Yeah, it’s a late day, but two cars got ruined. Along with that there is a financial thing there for the teams, which is a big issue for them, but then you brought up the biggest issue, which is safety. Fortunately Carlos is OK, but those things could have bigger consequences.

“I don’t know, I think it’s easy to say we did opening ceremonies and focused on other things and did they do their due diligence on the track, but with everything that happened today, you could ask some questions like did they do enough? That one for sure I can’t side step, that is a safety concern, and we’re here late but the safety one is something hopefully they will take pretty seriously.

“It happened in Monaco and Baku as well — it’s obviously a street circuit thing, but I feel like permanent circuits have a certain criteria or whatever and a lot of boxes to tick and I feel like street circuits need a few more. It’s hard when it’s open to the public, but they obviously need to do that.”

The damage caused to Sainz’s energy store required him to take another one that exceeds the limits, resulting in him getting a grid penalty. Ricciardo says the regulations need addressing around such a situation.

“That’s not fair. It’s a bit like Brazil — they stick to the rule book for Oscar (Piastri) and I but it’s like, come on,” he said. “That one you would think they would take some common sense. So I don’t agree with that one.”